OGPlanet has released a new game client of Lost Saga, an online fighting game where you can choose between four different battle modes, Escapee, Hidden Crown, Power-Stone, and Deathmatch, and fight in many different maps.

http://www.filefront.com/14864129/Lost-Saga-Client/

X Motor Racing Demo v1.21

X Motor Racing is an auto simulator with next generation physics model.

http://www.filefront.com/14864395/X-Motor-Racing-Demo-v1.21/

Close Combat The Longest Day Patch v5.50.07

This major update comes with dozens of bug fixes, map line of sight tweaks, data file changes for increased historical accuracy of equipment performance, and much more.

http://www.filefront.com/14864447/Close-Combat-The-Longest-Day-Patch-v5.50.07/

Wanna make your very own game? Well, here’s your chance!

Epic Games has released the Unreal Development Kit. Wondering just what the UDK is? Says Epic:

The Unreal Development Kit is the free version of the award-winning Unreal Engine 3, the software development framework used to create computer and video games, 3D simulations, TV shows, films and more

Anyone can download UDK and work with the same game development tools used to create blockbuster games, architectural walkthroughs and digital movies. UDK ships with the latest version of the Unreal Editor, with its unrivaled content creation toolset and rapid prototyping functionality.

UDK is free for noncommercial and educational use. Licensing terms are available to those who wish to sell UDK-powered games or to create commercial products or services for business use at www.udk.com/licensing.

You can grab your very own copy of the Unreal Development Kit, as well as trailers for the kit and sample games built using the kit, over on FileFront. So, go get your game making on!

Grab it here: http://www.filefront.com/listing/pub2/Unreal-Development-Kit

Download it at FileFront!

Darkest of Days Toolset

Download it at FileFront!

In short, he refers to the recent rumors that Blizzard’s Chinese World of Warcraft servers aren’t going to be coming back up anytime soon. For those of you who aren’t aware, Blizzard recently transferred their license to operate WoW in China to NetEase, away from The9.

The9 filed several lawsuits in an attempt to stop this transfer, and the Chinese government accordingly refused to give NetEase a license to operate WoW, saying that “in order to protect the interests of domestic gaming enterprises,” they would “suspend review of all games belonging to foreign companies in the event of lawsuits or arbitration between foreign companies and Chinese companies.”

The Chinese servers have already been down for a month or so, and there’s still no word on when they might return. This really doesn’t hurt Blizzard as much financially as you might think, as they received little revenue from the Chinese players, who pay as little as 6 cents an hour to play.

But how does this get Blizzard down to 5 million subscribers?

Well, that number is admittedly an estimate, especially since Blizzard doesn’t release subscriber numbers by country…anymore. This number was arrived at by using the percentages from the last press release they revealed these numbers in, which as I recall was just after the release of The Burning Crusade expansion. However, it stands to reason that the country to country proportions wouldn’t shift that far from what they were then. After all, it’s not like WoW wasn’t already an established presence at that time. As Tobold himself explains in the comments of the post,

The source is the last Blizzard press release which still announced user numbers by continent. Unfortunately they stopped doing that a while ago, and we can only assume there have been no major shifts since then.

Blizzard has to be concerned about this. After all, their ‘11 million subscriber’ claim is without a doubt the 800 lb gorilla in the MMORPG room. If this outage continues, they will undoubtedly see players trickle away to other MMOs that are up and running. As we all know, once a player is gone and established elsewhere, it becomes difficult to lure them back.

Many of the affected players have moved to Taiwanese servers, especially those who raid regularly. As for the others, even if Blizzard were to lose every single subscriber, they’d still be somewhere between five and seven million (estimated) active subscribers. That’s still a massive base of playing customers, and it’s still the bulk of their income base, which makes me wonder: Why haven’t we heard about this from Blizzard already? I’d expect them to come out and try to get the court of public opinion on their side (not that it would make much difference to the Chinese government). Still, why haven’t they?

My questions: When will hear the details of this from Blizzard, and how long do you think those servers can remain down before they reach a point where they will not recover the majority of those players? Even more intriguing: Does this whole snafu have anything to do with Electronic Arts’ purchase of The9 in 2007?

“Command & Conquer is a powerful franchise with an amazing 15-year legacy. We are thrilled to bring the dramatic Tiberium saga to a conclusion in Command & Conquer 4. This game is designed to give fans all the answers they’ve been looking for,” said Mike Glosecki, Lead Producer of Command & Conquer 4 at EA Los Angeles. “With its objective-based multiplayer mode, persistent player progression and all-in-one mobile base, players will experience Command & Conquer like never before.”

Much of the information on C&C4 is being kept under wraps and doled out as exclusive content. For more details on Command & Conquer 4 make sure to catch BattleCast PrimeTime on the July 24th episode. They’ll be revealing exclusive information C&C4. The first glimpse of the game will be the premier cinematic trailer aired exclusively on the July 23rd episode of Gametrailers TV on SPIKE TV. The ETA for Command & Conquer 4 is sometime in 2010.

Behold disciples of Nod, the end is soon upon us. Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that, after almost 15 years and 30 million games sold, EALA is bringing the award-winning Tiberium series to an epic conclusion with Command & Conquer™ 4. Shipping in 2010, Command & Conquer 4 will introduce a multitude of innovations to the to the classic fast and fluid Command & Conquer gameplay while retaining the core compulsions that fans have come to love over the series’ history. Introducing new class-based gameplay, mobile bases and persistent player progression throughout all game modes, Command & Conquer 4 offers players new, innovative and compelling strategic depth. The story of Command & Conquer 4 takes place after the events of the critically acclaimed Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars™. The year is 2062 and humanity is at the brink of extinction. With only six years left until the mysterious crystalline structure Tiberium renders the earth entirely uninhabitable, the two opposing factions – Global Defense Initiative (GDI) and the Brotherhood of Nod – inevitably find themselves in desperation for the same cause: to stop Tiberium from extinguishing mankind. The unthinkable becomes reality and Nod’s enigmatic leader Kane takes off for GDI headquarters. What is Kane planning in the heart of his enemies’ base? Command & Conquer 4 draws the epic conclusion to the beloved Tiberium universe, where fans will learn the fate of Earth, Nod, Tiberium, GDI and most importantly, Kane’s motivations behind his decade-long plan. In addition to the two campaigns on the epic battles of GDI and Nod, which players will get to conquer alone or in a cooperative mode, Command & Conquer 4 will also feature a new 5v5 objective-based multiplayer mode, promoting teamwork and cooperation and delivering a social real-time-strategy experience never seen before in a Command & Conquer game. Command & Conquer 4 is being developed at EA Los Angeles and will ship to retailers in 2010 for the PC. The game has not yet been rated by the ESRB or PEGI. For more information about the game, please visit www.commandandconquer.com or follow the community and development team on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ea_apoc.

John Harris, a writer over on the industry news site/blog Gamasutra,  writes a regular series of articles entitled Game Design Essentials. These long and exhaustively researched story discusses his position on many topics important to modern game design and the lessons learned along the way.

His latest installment discusses 20 RPGs that all designers should be familiar with and why. The feature article is interesting from the perspective of someone who has studied game design and as someone who has been using RPGs for storytelling and  enjoyment over the years. Aspiring designers could do far worse than to dig through this fairly dense statement of information covering RPGs from the classic pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons through the evolution of Wizardry, Ultima, Wasteland and more contemporary games like World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy and the Elder Scrolls titles.

You can check out the entire article here.

Well, that may be changing in the near future. According to Siliconera, Sony has secured a U.S. Patent for the technology that will apparently allow the Cell Processor in the PS3 to emulate the Emotion Engine of the PS2.

Couple this with the rumors of a price cut and the release of the PS3 Slim this fall, and you start to think that Sony may have a fundamental strategy shift under way.

After all, allowing the PS3’s Cell processor to emulate the Emotion Engine would allow Sony to sell PS2 titles via digital distribution on the PlayStation Store. Not only that, but couple that with the 160GB PS3 becoming the lead SKU, and you see a lot of storage that can be used for downloadable games.

This seems to be the business model Sony is trending towards, as evidenced by the UMD-less PSP Go. Tie in the price cut (rumored to be as much as $100), and you have a massive library of available games for a system that would be sneaking in under $300.

Now, all of this is speculation, of course. I just can’t seem to come up with any other reason for the patent to be filed other than backwards compatibility for the PS3. Here’s hoping that we see a fall firmware update that gives everyone the ability to play their PS2 games in their PS3.

Now if I could just get my PS3 to print out hundreds like the one in the image above…I doubt that’s coming in firmware anytime soon.

This week’s Rock Band 2 Music Store tracks update features Pearl Jam, Mission of Burma, Lacuna Coil and The Offspring. Wii owners can look forward to a wealth of tracks every week until the catalog catches up to the over 700 Rock Band tracks available for the Xbox 360 and PS3. Each original master recording is an even $2 or 200 points available for purchase at the Wii Shop.

(All tracks are original master recordings)

All the above tracks go online Tuesday, June 30th.

This weekend, IGN uploaded an interview featuring 2k Boston’s( formerly Irrational Games) Ken Levine, who was executive producer on both games as well as writer, and some key members of the Irrational Games team regarding the past, present and future of the game series. Levine and his team discuss the rough ride the series experienced, their personal favorite characters in the Irrational universe and the passion it requires to get a self-published sequel out on the street.

We ended up self-publishing the second game; we were a private company at the time. That meant it was a complete a labor of love and a labor of financial love as well, because John and I, the owners of the company, paid for the development and publishing of that title out of our own pocket, basically. That cost us a fair amount of money and when the game came out, it was probably a combination of — I don’t think we did enough different from the first game and it was just a little too late and too long for the sequel. It just didn’t sell very well – it sold a fraction of what the first one sold. I thought it was a better game.

There were two additional Freedom Force projects in the planning stages before the company decided to pursue their blockbuster title Bioshock and Levine also explains the concepts behind these titles in the interview.

Ken Levine: One quick thing before we begin, can I give some description about what Freedom Force 3 and Ultimate Freedom Force were?

IGN: Sure!

Ken Levine: Basically, these are projects that we never ended up making, and I thought it might be interesting for the Freedom Force fans, because you see versions of the characters in different time periods from Freedom Force. We had a 70’s Freedom Force we were going to do, we thought about doing a modern day Freedom Force, and they’re all concepts of characters that were going to be in that game or updated versions of characters from the original game. So I thought it might be cool.

The two games recently joined the growing list of classic titles on Valve’s Steam service at an amazingly discounted price ($7.49 for both games). If you are a fan of classic 60’s and 40’s super hero comics then these games should not be missed.

Well that actually happened as the publishing giant reorganized a bit putting RPG mavens Bioware and long time MMO developers Mythic in the same division. While the two studios will remain mostly autonomous for the time being, they now both have a single reporting line up the chain to the big bosses and money men. That single leader? Bioware’s Dr. Ray Muzyka.

Dr. Muzyka’s ascencion to the head of the organization basically also points to the exit of Mythic’s longtime leader Mark Jacobs. According to Jacob’s blog the MMO pioneer is taking a sabatical for awhile and he leaves with a classy ‘I’m not going to dish on anything, I’m just going to thank folks and peacefully step aside’ sort of announcement – a classy response that we don’t get to see so often these days.

Regarding the future path of the now combined studio’s efforts, Dr. Muzyka indicated in an official response over on IGN that:

Anything’s possible. We can’t say it wouldn’t happen. There’s no active plans, currently to do that, but the teams at Mythic and BioWare I know from talking to all of them, they’re really excited about working together, so I think that fuels a lot of cool things.

Warhammer: Age of Reckoning is still holding strong in the WoW dominated MMO market while Bioware’s first effort – the much anticipated Star Wars: The Old Republic is still a ways off. Mythic has a lot of experience that could help the minds at Bioware pull off their vision of Star Wars and maybe even put a dent in the Warcraft numbers but only time will tell if this pairing will be all it seems.

Electronic Arts and Dr. Pepper have entered into an agreement that will see Dr. Pepper providing codes for exclusive DLC for EA Games throughout 2010, starting with The Sims 3.
If you’re a Sims 3 fan, you can grab codes from Dr. Pepper that will unlock one-of-a-kind beach party items, or everything you need for a perfect tailgating party.

Tony Jacobs, Vice President of Marketing for Dr Pepper, said,

“The first-of-its-kind partnership with EA will give Dr Pepper fans an unrivaled experience by adding exclusive value to their games such as new levels and items. EA is the only media company that could reach our target audience with the breadth and depth of titles for gamers on any gaming platform.”

Honestly, these types of arrangements are going to become more and more prevalent in the future. As gaming becomes more and more accepted by mainstream marketers, there will be more tie-in opportunities to reach gamers as a market. This will end up being good for the industry, and good for individual gamers as well, as it will give us more opportunities to get cool little add-ons for our games like these.

You can check out the full text of the press release after the break.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. and PLANO, Texas (June 25, 2009) – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) and Dr Pepper today announced that the companies have entered a multimillion-dollar marketing agreement that brings original content to Dr Pepper consumers via EA’s blockbuster portfolio of games. Gaming fans may have access to exclusive premium content on select EA titles throughout 2010 with codes found on more than 500 million Dr Pepper products.

“We’re proud to partner with an innovative marketing company like Dr Pepper that has such a rich heritage,” said Elizabeth Harz, Senior Vice president of Global Media Sales for Electronic Arts. “EA is always looking for new ways to reach its fans, and by aligning with Dr Pepper, we’re able to offer consumers premium content that enhances the gaming experience.”

“The first-of-its-kind partnership with EA will give Dr Pepper fans an unrivaled experience by adding exclusive value to their games such as new levels and items,” said Tony Jacobs, Vice President of Marketing for Dr Pepper. “EA is the only media company that could reach our target audience with the breadth and depth of titles for gamers on any gaming platform.”

Gamers will experience many facets of this campaign ranging from co-branded retail initiatives to unique gameplay enhancing items for many of the popular 2010 titles and only available to Dr Pepper fans. The Sims™ 3 is the first title to participate in this campaign beginning early next year and will allow gamers to experience a variety of original content. For example, codes from specially marked Dr Pepper packages will unlock exclusive premium downloadable content that may include one-of-a-kind beach party items or all the elements of a perfect fall tailgating party.

“The Sims team is particularly excited about this offering because the Dr Pepper team shares our passion for introducing its brand to our player community in ways that will add to the players’ experience,” said Steve Seabolt, Vice President of Global Brand Development for The Sims. “This will include exclusive downloadable content available via our TheSims3.com community site. We have huge confidence that this ‘opt-in value add’ will have our players thinking very kindly of the Dr Pepper brand.”

Additional details of the relationship will be announced in the future.

ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks, has acquired id Software. This acquisition puts franchises like Fallout 3, Oblivion, Doom, Quake, and RAGE under one roof. The best news out of all of this is that all of the principals at id Software have signed long term contracts, meaning that id will continue to operate under the same management going forward.

In discussing the deal, id Technical Director and industry icon John Carmack said, “This puts id Software in a wonderful position going forward. We will now be able to grow and extend all of our franchises under one roof, leveraging our capabilities across multiple teams while enabling forward looking research to be done in the service of all of them. We will be bigger and stronger, as we recruit the best talent to help us build the landmark games of the future. As trite as it may be for me to say that I am extremely pleased and excited about this deal, I am.”

So, what sort of speculation can we make because of this deal? Bethesda games driven by id engines? That would seem to be a logical step, wouldn’t you think? What do you think this news means to the future of the two companies?

You can read the full text of the press release after the break.

ZeniMax Media Acquires id Software

Brings together two of world’s best game studios

Library of powerhouse franchises will include DOOM, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls,
QUAKE, Wolfenstein and RAGE

June 24, 2009 (Rockville, MD) – ZeniMax Media Inc., parent company of noted game publisher Bethesda Softworks, today announced it has completed the acquisition of legendary game studio, id Software, creators of world-renowned games such as DOOM, QUAKE, Wolfenstein, and its upcoming title, RAGE. The acquisition by ZeniMax Media joins together two of the finest, most respected videogame developers in the world, combining the first person shooter (FPS) expertise of id Software with acclaimed role playing game (RPG) developer Bethesda Game Studios – creators of the 2008 Game of the Year, Fallout 3, and the 2006 Game of the Year, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Bethesda Softworks will publish the titles of id Software other than upcoming releases previously committed to other publishers.

Founded in 1991, id Software established itself as an industry leader with some of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed video games of all time. id Software created the original first-person shooter, Wolfenstein 3D, and subsequently set new standards in the genre with the blockbuster releases of its DOOM and QUAKE titles. In addition, id Software developed cutting edge, proprietary technology with the id Tech engine which powers many notable FPS titles, and continues to make great advances in game technology under the direction of John Carmack, one of the country’s technology leaders and a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) Hall of Fame.

Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software, commented on the transaction: “This was a unique opportunity to team with a smart, sophisticated publisher like Bethesda Softworks where the interests of the studio and the publisher will be fully aligned in the development and marketing of our titles. In addition, we will now have financial and business resources to support the future growth of id Software, a huge advantage which will result in more and even better games for our fans.”

id Software will continue to operate as a studio under the direction of its founder, John Carmack. No changes will be made in the operations of id Software in the development of its games. All the principals at id Software have signed long-term employment contracts, assuring they will continue in their roles developing games at the studio.

“This puts id Software in a wonderful position going forward,” said John Carmack, who will continue to serve in his current role as Technical Director. “We will now be able to grow and extend all of our franchises under one roof, leveraging our capabilities across multiple teams while enabling forward looking research to be done in the service of all of them. We will be bigger and stronger, as we recruit the best talent to help us build the landmark games of the future. As trite as it may be for me to say that I am extremely pleased and excited about this deal, I am.”

Robert Altman, the founder, Chairman & CEO of ZeniMax Media stated, “We, along with many others, consider id Software to be among the finest game studios in the world, with extraordinary design, artistic and technical capabilities. They have demonstrated, repeatedly, that rare ability to create franchise properties that are critical and commercial successes. Our intention is to make sure id Software will continue to do what they do best – make AAA games. Our role will be to provide publisher support through Bethesda Softworks and give id Software the resources it needs to grow and expand.”

ZeniMax Media Inc, which is privately held, was founded in 1999 to create quality interactive entertainment products to meet the growing worldwide demand. The Company is headquartered in Rockville, MD and maintains offices in Hunt Valley, MD, London and Tokyo. Among its wholly owned subsidiaries are Bethesda Softworks, a premier publisher of video games, Vir2L Studios which develops games for the casual market, and ZeniMax Online Studios, a studio dedicated to massively multi-player online games (MMOG).

Bethesda Game Studios, the development group at ZeniMax Media, is one of the top video game studios in the world. Its most recent release, Fallout 3, was the 2008 winner of more than 60 Game of the Year awards, including The Associated Press, Official Xbox Magazine, Yahoo, PC Gamer, IGN, Game Critics Awards, Game Developer Choice Awards, and Gamespy. Bethesda also created the 2006 PC and Xbox 360® Game of the Year, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and the 2002 PC and Xbox® Game of the Year, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Bethesda Game Studios has created 2 of the 10 best games of all time, Fallout 3 and Oblivion, on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation® 3 platforms, as reported by the industry scoring system found at www.metacritic.com and www.gamerankings.com.

According to MCV, Kotick said in an interview,

“I’m getting concerned about Sony – the PS3 is losing a bit of momentum and they don’t make it easy for me to support the platform. It’s expensive to develop for the console, and the Wii and the Xbox are just selling better. Games generate a better return on invested capital on the Xbox than on the PlayStation.

They have to cut the price, because if they don’t, the attach rates are likely to slow. If we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony. When we look at 2010 and 2011, we might want to consider if we support the console — and the PSP too.”

That’s a big shot fired across Sony’s bow. So, will Sony take him seriously, and how will they respond?

According to Industry Gamers, Sony has already responded to Kotick’s statement (sort of) with the usual PR blurb, saying,

“PlayStation has tremendous momentum coming out of E3, and we are seeing positive growth with more than 350 titles slated to hit across all our platforms, including many anticipated games from our publishing partners. We enjoy healthy business relationships with and greatly value our publishing partners and are working closely with them to deliver the best entertainment experience.”

So what does all this mean? Basically, it means nothing. Activision is flexing their considerable muscle at Sony; probably in the hopes of getting a cut in their licensing fees, or a cut in the cost of the PS3 to increase sales of their games. Sony’s responding by touting how amazing their platform is, and saying nothing to respond to Kotick’s actual concerns.

This sort of thing isn’t all that unusual in the world of business. Besides, there are rumors flying of a $100 PS3 price cut to coincide with the release of Madden 10 in August, so Sony is likely to just ignore this and move forward as planned.

It’s unlikely that Activision will take any further steps unless the PlayStation situation worsens. After all, Call of Duty 4 alone sold 4.34 million copies on PS3, and PS3 is a leading seller in much of the world. Dropping support for the PS3 would be like cutting off their nose to spite their face.

So, taking all this into account, it all boils down to a bunch of corporate dick waving. Not all that original after all, is it?

Once you reach the relative safety of your roof top penthouse, the game truly begins throwing you into a grand conspiracy masterminded by a clandestine mystical organization. As you unravel the mystery, you can either fight your reputation as the bringer of the apocalypse or revel in the new coolness that is you and start building your own evil empire.

When it came time to choose our destinies I took the path of light and goodness and Shawn turned to the dark side to compare both story options. Those who take the high road are destined to become a man of the people, starting by protecting them from the Reaper Gang under the control of your psycho ex-girl friend. Your powers manifest in brilliant blue arcs of electricity that you’ll learn to use to subdue your enemies, and then bolt them to the ground with an effect similar to Spiderman and his webbing. You also turn into a portable CPR machine and earn good karma for healing injured citizens.

If you go for the cookies, your evil powers manifest in wicked red lightning. Killing gang members and citizen when they’re down gives you a boost to your bad karma and you can freely suck the life energy out of everyone. as you fall deep in depravity Cole begins to look like the evil overlord you aspire to be.

There is no middle road in this game. In the end you are going to be good or evil. However swinging between them isn’t as easy as say Fallout 3 where you can go slaughter innocents wholesale and then repair your rep by giving the old man pure drinking water. You’ll nickel and dime your way to hero or antihero status. You get big karma boosts to your rep either way at key points in the story, and you build up points little by little throughout play as you complete side quests. Evil players can still heal and good guys can play the psychic vampire occasionally but it will go against your karma rating. All players can recharge at any power box or items such as street lights or cars, so if your playing the straight man keep the use the life sapping only for emergency. The ultimate good or ultimate evil powers unlock at extreme levels of karma, so pick your path and go full out from the beginning.

Players can follow the main storyline, but it’s to your advantage to take on side quests to gain shards that give you an extra power reserve. Shards of the ray sphere that gave you your powers are embedded in odd places throughout the city and as side quest rewards. As your karmic reputation grows some of these quests will be locked out so doing them early is good.

If collecting and exploring every corner of the map isn’t your thing, you’ll still have to do this because shards are the only way of increasing your power reserve. You’ll be looking for secret satellite messages anyway so grabbing shards as you go pays off quickly. The camera is surprisingly cooperative working with you for the most part and your mini radar will thoughtfully tell you when you’re close to either one of these items as well as pointing out bad guys and power sources.

You are meant to be leaping from the roof tops and sliding across the city heights on power lines. Coming down to earth is usually only necessary to receive or turn in quests. Falling from extreme heights and landing with your fist to the concrete scattering you enemies in your wake like the Thunder God himself is one of your cooler powers. Just make sure you don’t land in water or you’re in for extreme shock treatment.

InFamous has four levels of difficulty with enough wiggle room to make both the complete novice and the hardcore gamer happy. There is some puzzle solving involved in gameplay, and at some points you’ll have to shoot rusted metal to clear your path or access important items. This is definitely not the focus of the game so you shouldn’t find these riddles too challenging. Unfortunately it’s one of the middle of the road decisions made by Sucker Punch and Sony that will ultimately make very few gamers happy. Tomb raiders will crave more dangerous and intricate puzzles and players who like to run towards the danger will be annoyed that they were included at all.

Still, InFamous is overall a very satisfying game with much to offer gamers with different play styles.The storyline is solid and involving. It’s graphically beautiful making the best of the PS3 capabilities and the soundtrack and effects blend in with gameplay enhancing your experience rather than irritating you to death or breaking your concentration. Usually multiplayer games are the best buys because of re-playability. In this case, exploration and side quests give you the option to add hours of gameplay and of course you’ll have to play through it twice to see both ends as well. I would definitely recommend Infamous as a title to purchase for your collection.

My first thought was that other than the size of the unit, the PSP Go really wasn’t all that different from the PSP I already own. Over the weekend, I read an interesting article on Ars Technica, where they reached a similar conclusion. I thought I’d share it, as it tracks closely with my early impressions of the system.

The bigger news, according to Ars Technica, is the news that Sony is moving all their PSP distribution to digital, as well as on UMD. However, there’s no reason to buy the new handheld to take advantage of this move to digital. After all, with the right Memory Stick, I can download all these nifty new games onto my existing PSP. So, how will the PSP Go do at retail?

Says Ars Technica,

“The value and audacity of what Sony will be offering has nothing to do with the hardware and everything to do with the ubiquity of downloadable games and content. Sony already offers the ability to download video from the PlayStation Network directly with your existing hardware, and that allows you to keep your larger screen and ability to play your classic games. Not to mention you can take advantage of inexpensive used games that exist on UMDs. Sure, the system is slightly bigger and doesn’t support bluetooth, but you won’t have to buy new cables. The value of the “classic” PSP systems has never been better.

But the more important point here is this: How many people will be interested in shelling out $249 for what is basically a re-packaged PSP 3000 with no UMD drive? Sure, the Go is targeted squarely at the iPhone generation, but when you can buy a used PSP for a hundred dollars less, and Memory Sticks for way less than a hundred bucks, where’s the draw? Also, what happens to stores like Gamestop when a big box retailer, like Wal-Mart, decides to speed its sales by slashing the price?

So, to answer my own question, I don’t think the PSP Go is a miscalculation in and of itself, but I do think Sony will be very dependent on the volume of its download sales to realize their investment. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it shakes out, but I’m a bit skeptical of how the sales of the unit itself will go. Sony’s digital distribution may be the real winner in all of this though, and it could offset any sluggish sales of the hardware itself.

So, are you planning to pick up a PSP Go when it’s released this fall? If so, are you replacing a PSP you already own?

What would be surprising would be for them to attempt to capitalize on that opportunity by launching a new console. Well, according to Sam Kennedy at 1UP, that’s exactly Microsoft’s plan.

In their Listen Up podcast, Kennedy was chatting with David Ellis of Microsoft, where they were discussing the new motion-sensing Natal technology, Ellis apparently let it slip that there will be a new XBox console next fall. Yeah, you heard that right. They’re planning another console launch in 2010.

Gamers will also be able to purchase Natal as an add-on for existing 360’s, which begs the question: Why launch another console now?

After all, the odds are that any new console launched next year won’t be the tenological leap that the current generation of consoles was. More likely, they’ll replace some of the problematic hardware in the current 360 platform, possibly upgrade a few minor things, bolt on Natal, and call it good.

So, I guess that leads me to another question: Will anyone actually buy the damn thing?

Well, I have to speculate that they would. After all, most console fanboys will line up out the door for any minor release for their platform of choice, so a brand new platform to trumpet would be sweet music to their ears.

Additionally, it would give Microsoft the chance to move past the Red Ring of Death issues that have plagued the 360 platform, as well as allowing them to coerce owners of older 360’s to move up to a console that offers HDMI compatibility. After all, who was going to upgrade just for the HDMI connector?

There will be two things that decide how well this rumored venture pans out for Microsoft. First, can they get it to market before Nintendo launches Wii HD? If so, they would position themselves squarely to take a chunk out of the substantial Wii owner base.

Second, can they get it to market before Sony launches their motion controller? If you saw the E3 press conference that Sony put on, you have to admit that the Sony motion controller looked much more impressive in demos than Natal did. If Sony manages to put an impressive motion controller on the market in Spring 2010 as they claimed to be planning at E3, it could have an adverse effect on anything that Microsoft releases in the fall.

What do you think? If you had to make the choice, which one of these systems would you choose?

One of the premiere computer game historical archives, an abandonware website called Home of the Underdogs returned to life after going dark some time ago.

Gaming is a new hobby, it doesn’t have the legacy of other leisure activities but in many ways because of the evolving nature of technology and the cash driven nature of the industry it means that many games that could be considered foundational to the modern video game design are unavailable or obsoleted and incompatible with modern computing platforms. Consoles and computer games alike suffer from this and even though sites like Good Old Games (GOG.com) are stemming this trend with DRM free older titles like Fallout, Descent and Freespace there are still hundreds of titles that will never see the light of day because their publishers no longer exist or the rights are a mess.

I’m not a big fan of illegal activity but in some ways since the legality of older titles are in question often, I can only say I am glad to see that sites like Abandonia and it’s peer Home of the Underdogs served to preserve records and often copies of these faded titles for posterity. The Underdogs site was the victim of its own success for awhile, with the hosting fees and a lack of continued energy forcing the original founders to surrender the website to the eternal darkness of a 404 error.

If you’re a classic gamer looking to relive your halcyon days you might want to check out Underdogs.

According to The Wall Street Journal, total videogame spending dropped below $1 billion for the first time since August 2007. The most significant drops were in console sales, with the sales leading Nintendo Wii dropping 55%.

But it’s not all bad news. Since the sales figures for this month largely met the expectations of industry analysts, there is speculation that the recent contraction in the industry should end by August. Also driving these predictions is the fact that there are a number of high-profile games coming to retail release dates, starting with the Sims 3 this month. We can still look forward to games like Batman: Arkham Asylum, Left 4 Dead 2, Dragon Age, and Brutal Legend to drive sales up later this year.

In all honesty, no one should be surprised by these numbers. After all, last May saw the release of one of the most highly anticipated titles of the year, Grand Theft Auto 4. That title alone drove more sales than the top two sellers for this May combined. Nevermind that had it hit its intended release date, it would have already been on store shelves for months at that time. 2008 was a phenomenal year for videogame sales, but in today’s economy, every industry is taking hits. Videogames may recover faster, because they allow consumers to stay home, and are one of the more cost efficient methods of personal entertainment.

I don’t think it’s time to panic yet, but if there isn’t a turnaround by August, then you may have to worry a little bit.

I’m playtesting Sims 3 right now, and have been able to find new dlc for the game already on several free sites including Mod The Sims and Parsimonius. There are many sims and patterns to be had and even a few global mods already up. For those of you who are new to this god game, you can find more details on Sims 3 from the EA press release after the break.

In The Sims 3 on PC/Mac you can create lifelike Sims with a unique personality and take them anywhere in the neighborhood. The powerful Create-a-Sim tool allows you to create Sims that are more realistic than ever. Select from dozens of personality traits such as brave, artistic, kleptomaniac, clumsy, paranoid and romantic. With Create-a-Sim, you can create a limitless number of truly unique Sims. The Sims 3 allows for infinite possibilities to design the interior and exterior of your Sims’ surroundings using the Create-a-style feature. Additionally, you can enjoy the challenge of short-term and long-term goals and then reap the rewards! Based on personality traits, skills and career choices, your Sims have short and long term Wishes that provide constant fun challenges and so many things to do and achieve. You have the ultimate freedom to choose whether to fulfill their destiny, giving them lifetime happiness and rewards or not!

Register your copy of The Sims 3 for PC and Mac at www.TheSims3.com to enjoy the robust online and community features unique to your game including an all-new town called Riverview that you can download for no additional charge once you register*. You will also gain access to 1,000 SimPoints to purchase items from The Sims 3 Store to customize your Sims’ appearance and houses in all-new ways. Be the director of your Sims’ movies by capturing clips during your gameplay, visiting the official site, and editing the soundtrack, story, and transitions, then share it with the world. See what you can create with The Sims 3.

Shawn mentioned all of this when he was talking about his PrE3 Blues. I mentioned then that I was unfortunately agreeing with him.

So, in the face of this crazy E3 week, how do I feel now?

Well, I’m pleasantly surprised. Even staying home this year, I found myself more interested in E3 than I have been in a while. Big announcements were rolling out one after the other, both from the ‘Big 3′ and others. Even the announcements that were leaked beforehand (yes, I mean you, PSP Go) were exciting to see.

It seemed that publishers and developers placed some bets on E3 this year, holding some announcements just for this week. It really helped to make this week feel important to everyone involved, from those of us here at FileFront to everyone at the conference. The ESA can stand tall and smile after the conclusion of this week.

I have to admit, it was nice. The industry appears to be coming together behind E3, and that’s a good thing. It’s great for the industry, and for gamers as well. The industry needs a central conference to feature its hottest wares, and E3 has long been it. With gamer-centric conferences like PAX becoming larger every year, it’s refreshing to see it coming back into its own.

Now, it’s time to start talking about next year’s E3, right?