Interactive Gaming Software is giving gamers the chance to prove that they could do a better job as President playing Commander in Chief. Aspiring politicians can see if they’re really qualified to get in on the 2012 Presidential campaign with this political simulator.

Players pick their country and get down to the business of running the government. You’ll have to carefully manage economic, military, political, social, cultural, and foreign affairs to keep your country afloat. You’ll be electing a cabinet and forming business and military alliances with neighboring powers while you deal with terrorists and natural disasters. You can play single player against an A.I. or go head to head with a friend in Warmode.

Commander in Chief is available in Spain as “Yo Presidente” as well as several other countries. the game launches January 20th, 2009 to coincide with President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration. Thanks goes out to Reuters for the heads up on the Commander in Chief retail release date.

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.

Microsoft has cornered the market on the coveted second season of Internet hit, “The Guild.” The opening episode will premier simultaneously on Xbox 360 Live Marketplace, MSN and Zune. Season two is ushering in more gaming oriented fare including “The Jace Hall Show,” “Red vs. Blue” and first-season episodes of “Guild.” Read the full article on Reuters for the business end of the details.

In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, “The Guild” is a series of video shorts. It’s a spoof on a fictional raiding guild for an EverQuest or World of Warcraft type MMO. If a picture paints a thousand words, how many is a video worth?

Struggling electronics retailer Circuit City today filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection (yes, Chapter 11, like 1UP parent company Ziff Davis Media filed for earlier this year), according to Reuters. The announcements comes just a week after the company announced it would be closing 155 stores due to the economic downturn, among other factors.

In the filing, Circuit City CFO Bruce Besanko explained the move: “In large part, a Chapter 11 filing is due to three factors, all of which contributed to a liquidity crisis that prevented the company from completing its turnaround goals outside of formal proceedings: erosion of vendor confidence, decreased liquidity and a global economic crisis.”

It’s been an absolute whirlwind of bad news recently — Gizmodo recently reported that Sony stopped shipments of their products while they were in transit to distribution centers and had them returned “among worries that Circuit City couldn’t pay for the shipments.” That remains an unconfirmed rumor, but it wouldn’t seem out of place among the rest of the bad news that’s gone on. Hopefully they pull through this; besides, where else will you go to pay to have free updates installed? Not to mention the fact that it would, y’know, put people out of work.

Yes, Resident Evil fans will have to wait another eight months before Resident Evil 5 lands on Friday the 13th of March 2009. While this is a blow to those (like me) who want to get their hands on it much earlier than that, I would personally rather wait than be pissed over a rush job which is likely the same sentiments of any RE fan out there.

The trailer shows off some of the cooperative gameplay we have been hearing so much little about, and while I have to agree with Jonathan that it looks like a revamping of the same mechanics and stylings of RE4, I have to say that it still looks like it will be a decent game – thus far. It could turn into a complete stinkfest but we will just have to wait and see.

According to Jonathan:

“The story will involve Chris Redfield landing in Africa to investigate a possible bioterrorist attack. This being a Resident Evil title, the “bio” part of that involves people turning into face-eating monsters. The main new feature they showed off was an online co-op mode, which has a friend playing another agent, named “Sheva.” The demo showed Chris tossing Sheva over a gap between buildings, where she was ambushed by some villagers. From there, she opened fire on them, while Chris provided sniper support. The demo ended with the two encountering a chainsaw-weilding, bag-headed enemy: a revamped version of RE4’s apparently.”

Another trailer is expected to be released at Comic Con so be watching out for that one.

Microsoft kicked off E3 with a press conference not unlike a firecracker that has been dipped in water: it starts off exciting, but then the fuse runs out and all you get a a little “pop” if you’re lucky. Similarly, they brought out the big guns for an opener, leaving everything but the last few minutes pretty unsurprising. Read on for a play-by-play of Microsoft’s big E3 announcements. Read the full article

We have touched on the topic of what movies would make great games before here at Gaming Today, and so have other sites I am sure. However today, I came across this interesting post on Yahoo where Ben Silverman lists six films that he feels would make great games and lists ones that get as close to his choice as possible. I have listed the flicks below along with my two cents on each choice, which I just know that all of you are looking forward to more than anything else.

• Children of Men: While I agree 100% that Alfonso Cuaron’s awesome sci-fi novel would make a great game, I would prefer that it would be based off the book instead of the boring movie. Yes, Clive Owen made it very watchable because he is indeed the stuff women’s fantasies are made of (and not a bad actor either) – but the film was just dry and lacking in every way shape or form. The movie just did not draw you in emotionally to the plight of humanity nor did you care what happened to the characters. Unlike the book, this movie was as dry as burnt toast.

Closest Match: Half-Life 2

• 28 Days/Weeks Later: Silverman calling the Resident Evil games nothing more than titles filled with brain dead zombies from the “Thriller” video is just a testament to the fact that he has either: a) not played one of these titles since the first in the franchise, or b) has never played one at all. To suggest that either of the 28 days films would give a bit of intelligence to the zombie game market is a bit of a stretch because the zombie theme has been done to death – which is probably one of the reasons that the Capcom is moving away from it with the more recent RE games. Gamers are a fickle bunch when it comes to the RE series -on the one hand they complain that they are sick of zombies, and then when Capcom decides to release another RE4-type game a la RE5 – they complain that they need to get back to zombies. So which is it do you want? Make up your minds!! If I were to make a game based on a “zombie” movie I would have to pick “Shaun of the Dead” like one of our previous writers, William, suggested. Not only would it be an “intelligent” choice like Silverman suggests we need, but it would also bring in some much needed fresh-air to the whole zombie genre.

Closest Match: Left 4 Dead (slated for a November release)

• Kill Bill Vol 1-2: This movie being made into a videogame was mentioned in a previous post but for the life of me I cannot find it. I agree though, it would make a fun game.

Closest Match: WET (slated for a December release)

• Master and Commander: Far Side of the World:- Not sure if a gritty, realistic and scurvy laden flick (although a great novel) would be such a huge hit. Maybe if it were an RTS title yes, but as an adventure game – personally I do not think so.

Closest Match: Sid Meier’s Pirates!

• Memento: I am still confused over this movie and playing a videogame based on it would just make my brain implode. Ok, I jest. I liked the movie, it was interesting and very ambitious but I am not sure how a game based on leaving yourself notes and tattooing clues on your body would go over with gamers under the age of 30.

Closest Match: Indigo Prophecy

• Seven Samurai: No kidding. Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 film was a masterpiece of epic proportions. It would make a fabulous game, and might actually bring life back to games that feature the true samurai not the over the top comical ones like we see in games today.

• Closest Match: Dynasty Warriors 6 (which was very meh in my opinion)

To view the list in its original form and get Silverman’s opinion on it, just click through the link below.

Via: Yahoo Games

According to a post over on Kotaku, Capcom is predicting major sales for Resident Evil 5. How major? 2.3 million in global sales for the year. What?

Keep in mind, Resident Evil 4 was released in on the GameCube in 2005 and by January 2006 the Nintendo version along with the PS2 port had shipped over 3 million units worldwide. By January 2007, the PS2 sold over 2 million units, the GC version 1.6 million thus bringing the total to 3.6 million units worldwide – which is not too shabby.

Add to these numbers the Wii port which sold over 1, 250, 000 million copies (I cannot for the life of me find figures for the PC version) and you have a grand total of over 4.8 million units sold since the game debuted in 2005. Therefore, if the Wii version of RE4 can sell over 1.25 million units within approximately a year what makes them think that RE5 would only bring in 2.3 million?

The Resident Evil franchise has sold over 34 million copies worldwide and as highly anticipated as this outing is, especially since the great reception the last one received, Capcom should really be expecting much higher sales for RE5. Maybe they are just being humble or extremely conservative.

Via: Kotaku

The UK magazine Xbox World 360 and GamesRadar (which seems to be a dead link now) has reveled some really interesting news about the upcoming Resident Evil 5. Apparently, the female character that we saw in recent screenshots will be AI controlled when you are in solo mode, BUT if you happen to take the game online anyone can take over her character and play some sweet zombie hacking co-op along side of you. Awesome.

Other little interesting tidbits:

• The game takes place in an Africa country located near (which we already pretty much figured) Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Kenya where volcanic activity has unleashed a virus upon the inhabitants. The game is basically taking the players back to where mankind began, which is why Africa was chosen as the location (which is not the first time a RE game has had African connections).
• Sherry Birkin and Albert Wesker have been confirmed along with playable flashbacks to fill in the backstory and tie-up some loose ends.
• The “Mercenaries” mini-game from RE4 is back and includes a few more features and while there still is no strafing, a cover system has been put into place so that you can press against walls and shoot around corners as well as dodge and duck using the right analog stick.

I honestly cannot wait for RE5 and while March 2009 feels like it is ages away, at least we have a new video to look forward to on May 30th when supposedly Famitsu will be giving it the world premiere treatment.

Via: PS3 Fanboy

Dark Sector
Developer: Digital Extremes
Publisher: D3 Publisher of America
Price: $59.99
Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Category: Action
ESRB Rating: M for Mature (Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Intense Violence)
Release Date: March 25, 2008

Dark Sector unfortunately suffers from a gaming ailment that I’ve begun referring to as “Gears of War Syndrome.” You see, Gears of War really nailed the whole “third-person, cover-based shooter” genre over a year ago; so much so that any title with similar gameplay since can be labeled as being “good…but not as good as Gears of War.” Army of Two has this problem, Kane and Lynch has this problem (among many others), and Dark Sector also has this problem. Even while playing the game, I found myself trying to pull off some moves from Gears of War — like blind fire — and was disappointed when I couldn’t. That’s not to say Dark sector is a bad game; it’s just mostly all been done before and better.

Read the full article