Have you ever really felt bad about the way you feel after playing a game you were looking forward to?

Of course you have, I think it might be one of the few constants of the gamer experience – disappointment when a game fails to live up to its potential and promise. Well, Prototype is one of those experiences for me.

It has all the ingredients of a smashing good time – a super powered hero, a sandbox city, even a conspiracy relating to the military industrial complex manipulating people for their own nefarious ends only to have it go wrong somehow.

Well, despite the mix of interesting pieces, the sum of Prototype just ends up coming out as a fairly bland experience. Maybe my expectation was improperly set by the history of the developer. These same talented folks turned out one of the best super hero games ever developed – Incredible Hulk Ultimate Destruction. That title featured a super powered hero running around in a sandbox New York city setting solving missions and running side missions just like Prototype but somehow the fun factor seemed to be higher in that title.

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With the economy continuing it’s long spiral down the toilet this past year, we’ve seen a lot of developers being forced to cancel projects, shuffle their investments, or even close their doors entirely. Now though, it seems that trend has caught up to the big boys in the gaming industry. Sony has now announced that they will be laying off 8,000 workers in their electronics sector between now and March 2010, as well as another 8,000 temporary or contract workers. They also plan to shut down several manufacturing plants across the globe. The company hopes these measures will allow them to reduce costs by $1.1 billion a year during the economic crisis.

Analysts have pointed out that Sony’s financial problems may partly stem from the rising value of the yen compared to the lower value of the US dollar and the Euro. Since 80% of the company’s profits come from overseas, their income has been hit pretty hard. Some analysts are saying cost-cutting measures may not be enough though, such as Katsuhiko Mori, a fund manager at Daiwa SB Investments (and I’m guessing a “glass half-empty kind of guy):

“The number sounds big, but this staff reduction won’t be enough. Sony doesn’t have any core businesses that generate stable profits. After the workforce reduction, the next thing we want to see is what is going to be the business that will drive the company.”

The one thing us gamers will probably be keeping an eye on though is how Sony decides to move forward with the PS3 and their whole gaming division. Drastic measures like this could indicate the company isn’t prepared to move forward as quickly with some of their plans. On the other hand, the PS3 is probably one of their most profitable products out right now, so they could just as easily throw most of their support behind it. We shall have to see.

Despite the vote of no confidence the Entertainment Software Association received from former members, it’s apparently been busier than advertised. The advocate for US game publishers issued a press release today announcing California has settled a grievance over a 2005 video game law to the tune of $282,794.

The sum covers the ESA’s legal expenses incurred while representing the games industry over California’s 2005 video game law. A U.S. District Court Judge declared the law introduced by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger unconstitutional in August, 2007.

According to GamePolitics ESA CEO Michael Gallagher offered a scathing commentary on the state’s use of funds to pursue frivolous personal agendas.

California deserves more from its legislators than pursuing flawed legislation. State employees are facing pay cuts. California’s services are being scaled back. And, anxiety is rising in Sacramento to find funds. Rather than tackling real problems affecting Californians, they chose to waste time, money and state resources. It is shameful that legislators pursued personal agendas in spite of the facts.

Caregivers are not well-served by court battles and legal fees. Rather, they would have been far better off if state officials worked together with our industry to raise awareness about video game ratings and the parental controls available on all new game consoles—both of which help ensure that the games children play are parent-approved.

California is in a state of crisis and is struggling to agree on a new budget. The California Progress Report political news blog is giving a daily blow by blow of the situation. A state budget has been MIA for 35 days now and California is in the hole to the tune of $15.2 billion. Unfortunately Republicans are opposed the proposed plan and Democrats are no more supportive siting concerns over reforms and sales tax increases.

According to guardian.co.uk, Gov. Schwarzenegger signed an executive order terminating 10,300 part-time jobs last week. The order also reduces the pay of 200,000 state employees to the federal minimum wage until a state budget is approved.

Amidst this financial crisis, Gov. Schwarzenegger has ordered an appeal on the Judge’s injunction through the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Gallagher’s response:

It is unfortunate that the state is stubbornly pursuing an appeal that is likely to lead to even more court-awarded fees.

It looks like the ESA can expect another check in the future.

Codemasters has announced the EU release of Book 14: The Ring Forges, the latest free content update for LotRO Shadows of Angmar.

Book 14: The Ring-forges of Eregion brings a wide array of changes to LotRO, including the addition of Eregion, the continuation of the epic questline, and preparations for Moria.  Codematsers has also been hard at work adding even more player-requested features to the game.

Highlights:

• Eregion: Journey to where the Elven Rings were forged
• Epic Quest: The epic quest continues with world events that open up the adventure to every player across all servers
• Moria Prelude Quests: Aid the Fellowship of the Ring as they prepare to leave Rivendell and make their way toward Mordor.
• Dungeons: The loot dropped in all instances and raids is being upgraded, and bosses and mobs are being adjusted to make for even better play experiences! Now is the time to prepare for the dangers that dwell in Moria
• Animation Improvements: LOTRO continues to polish the experience
• Animations and sounds for each Minstrel skill using their equipped instrument (no longer just the Lute!)
• Monster play emote animations for Orc, Uruk, Spider and Warg
• New animations for 12 emotes – plus three new animated emotes

You can get the EU Patch by hitting the badge below. Full release notes are listed after the jump.

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This probably the largest press release I have ever seen – or at least since I have been at Gaming Today. Normally they are pretty much short, to the point, and padded with overly positive and glowing quotes regarding just how fabulous the announcement is to them or how wonderful it is to work with so and so.

I wonder if we will ever get a press release that includes quotes from people who hated to work with one another? For example: “Bob was drunk all the time and kept playing grab-ass with all the female employees” or “John was such a tyrant that I wanted to spit in his tall-quadruple-half-caff-light-foam-latte with soy milk every morning. God I hated that guy” or “Pete stunk so bad that even after I got home of the evening I could taste cabbage in the air – even in my apartment”.

Anyway, this press release is more or less a massive list of upcoming titles from EA and its studios which will be released around the holidays and into next year. These titles will also be showcased at E3 next week with the initial press conference being hosted by CEO John Riccitiello, will also spotlight many of the creative leaders behind the games.

The complete line-up of titles on display at E3 are as follows:

• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
• Crysis Warhead
• Dead Space
• FaceBreaker
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• HASBRO FAMILY GAME NIGHT
• iPhone/iPod Touch Games from EA Mobile
• iPod Games from EA Mobile
• Left 4 Dead
• LITTLEST PET SHOP
• Madden NFL 09
• Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
• Mirror’s Edge
• Mobile Phone Games from EA Mobile
• Mobile, iPhone & iPod titles
• MySims Kingdom for the Wii and Nintendo DS
• MySims, made for the PC
• NBA LIVE 09
• NCAA FOOTBALL 09
• Rock Band 2
• SimCity Creator for the Wii
• Skate It
• Spore
• The Lord of the Ring: Conquest
• The Sims 2 Apartment Pets for the Nintendo DS
• Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09
• Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09 for the PSP
• Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
• Zubo

For the full press release including more information on each title listed, as well as the prerequisite “sweet as honey” quotes from EA’s John Riccitiello and John Pleasants, read on after the jump.

Via: Press Release

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While Dungeons & Dragons may dominate the history of tabletop RPGs in the USA there is another game that has been around almost as long and has had almost as much impact on gamers. I think back to my first games in the early 1980’s and I realize that it wasn’t swords & sorcery that grabbed my interest and pulled my to the game table, it was my love of comic books and super heroes.

The first RPG I played was a nondescript blue book with two titanic heroes clashing on its cover. The rules were confusing for a group of 3rd graders to grasp but it didn’t matter, we just rolled the dice and as I found happening for the next 7 years, it always degenerated into a fight in the park. The epic clash of super powered characters didn’t have grand story at first – like many of the comics we were reading they were simple morality plays locked up under the sanitary seal of the comics code authority.

While Champions was the early leader in the market other games like Superworld and Villains & Vigilantes offered different takes and options for those who were unhappy or uncomfortable with the system behind Champions. These systems all offered a different mechanic but the core concepts were similar, all of them focused on costumed heroes with amazing powers fighting to save the world from dastardly villains.
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When I mentioned how I’ve found myself unable to take Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 out of my PSP, I didn’t think of the upside — there isn’t a whole lot else to play on the system. Quality, original games for the system are few and far between, and for every Lumines or God of War, there are 20 crappy ports. Sony’s John Koller acknowledges that, but refutes the idea that the PSP is dying, and in fact believes that “we’re at a point actually where the counter to that is that it’s actually doing very, very well.”

“From a gaming standpoint, I think that there’s a few things that are happening. There’s been a calibration amongst publishers of how to publish for the PSP,” Koller said. He admits that “initially a lot of the games that launched were either ports or games that didn’t really meet the demographic’s interest, and that was as we were shifting down to that teen demo,” and thinks that’s due to publishers being unsure of what demographic was actually buying the PSP.

“We have been — and I guess where we are now is at a point were today publishers are seeing the results of decisions made 18 months ago. Where they were saying, ‘You know what, maybe we’ll try this or that or maybe we’ll wait a little bit to see how the PSP does.’ The level of games that we have now are very strong on the quality side, and I think, in many ways, have kind of followed what we have been preaching here is that the key to success in publishing on the PSP is to launch larger franchise games with unique gameplay underneath. That’s a non-port type strategy. That’s something like a God of War or Crisis Core where it’s a large brand name, it’s a very good game from a quality standpoint, but it’s unique. You can’t play it on console, and it avoids the cannibalization that you would get from someone who may own a console and play their PSP at home, which is a common occurrence.”

He continued, “Given that situation, many consumers were choosing one or the other, and that’s not a situation that we want to put a consumer in. That’s another point to be made, and then the third thing is a lot of interest in the PSN, the PlayStation Network, and the downloadable distribution there. There’s some considerable resources there being placed against development in that area as well.”

But things are looking up, according to Koller — both in terms of quality and the prices that you’ll be able to find games at.

“I think the net of this is that over the course of the next six to twelve months, there’s going to be a tremendous amount of excitement about the franchises that are coming to PSP, the quality of the games, and then also the games that are going to be easily downloaded that are very engaging but for a less expensive price. I think that those areas are really going to instigate a lot of excitement around that category.”

I certainly hope so. I’m gonna need something else to play once I become tired of Hot Shots.

via PSP Fanboy

Oh, Europe, you’re always getting the short end of the gaming stick. While the rest of the world has already worked their way through Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, you still have to wait until next week to find out the story behind that one character from the classic RPG that appeared in 1/80th of the game. On the plus side though, Sony apparently feels your pain. SCEE has now announced that a limited edition PSP bundle will be hitting store shelves as well. The bundle will include a special silver PSP stamped with an FFVII 10th Anniversary logo, along with the game itself. The bundle was originally offered in Japan only and included a silver buster sword, so that might be included as well.

Via Next-Gen.biz

Okay, with Microsoft out of the way, it’s now Sony’s turn to give their spin on the NPD Group’s data for last month. Of the three current-gen consoles, PlayStation 3 sold the least in April (albeit by an extremely slim margin) and, overall, Sony platforms didn’t have a particularly good month. So what angle would Sony take?

The main talking point focused on year-over-year sales growth. The PS3 sold 127% better than last April, which isn’t huge, but software sales were up 410% to over two million units, thanks in large part to Grand Theft Auto IV.

Sony was also proud that, with 1 million copies of GTA sold, 23.6% of PS3 owners in the U.S. had purchased a copy, which is a 29% higher attach rate than GTA had on Xbox 360. (According to their math, the game had an attach rate of around 16.75% on 360.)

I found it somewhat amusing that the press release claims the PS3 “continues [its] blockbuster year” when, from a hardware standpoint, it really had a poor month. But that’s a minor gripe; what else do you expect from a press release.

Hit the jump for the full press release. Read the full article

Square Enix today announced that Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII will be released across all PAL territories on June 20th for the PSP.With cool visuals, full 16:9 widescreen presentation, an engaging battle system, and additional gameplay challenges not included in the original Japanese version, fans and newcomers alike can experience the world from an all-new perspective. As an added incentive to pre-order, a special edition version of the game, with hardback artwork book and slipcase is available exclusively with selected online retailers while stocks last.

For more information about Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, check out our previous posts; meanwhile, our European brethren can get details on how to pre-order by clicking here.

Via: Press Release