When your Xbox 360 gets stolen from you, what do you do? Call the cops? No, you pick up that wireless controller, and you track that sucker down. That’s what Ryan Ketsenburg of Missouri State did when he woke up one morning in his dorm room to find his beloved console missing. Someone had apparently broken in while he and his roommates were sleeping and made off with the 360, leaving a controller behind. That’s when Ketsenburg no doubt pulled out a magnifying glass and Sherlock Holmes hat:

Ketsenburg, who lives in Hutchens House, said that after his Xbox was stolen, he turned on his wireless Xbox controller and found that it was still connecting to his Xbox. Based on this discovery, Ketsenburg said he realized that his Xbox must be nearby, he said.

The controller connected to the Xbox on the fourth, fifth and sixth floors of Hutchens but not on the third floor and seventh floor, so through process of elimination, Ketsenburg said he figured out that the stolen Xbox must be on the fifth floor. Following the controller’s signal, Ketsenburg said he was able to pinpoint the room where his Xbox was stolen.

The Xbox 360 wireless controller has a 30-foot range, according to the Xbox Web site. When looking for his Xbox, Ketsenburg said the light-emitting diodes of the controller flashed when he was out of range. The 5th floor resident assistant checked the alleged room where the stolen Xbox was and was able to find the Xbox.

I have to admit, that is one impressive and creative way to recover some stolen goods. The student has said that he intends to prosecute the thief “to the fullest extent of the law,” which should be quite the surprise to that person, since they were not in their room when the console was recovered. Still, at least he got his Xbox back, though the bastard had already formatted the hard drive.

Frogwares Studio and Focus Home Interactive have sent us the very first screenshots of Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper, the new game that will be released for PC in March 2009. This time, Sherlock Holmes is back and in it the player will launch into a hunt for the most nefarious serial killer in England’s history.

The game will offer players two different 3D view modes, a third-person view in the purest sense of a point and click style adventure, but also in a first-person view should you choose. The player will be able to play in one or the other mode or even combine them for greater immersion along with the introduction of a new system for piecing together crimes. This should give players who have enjoyed Holmes’ other PC adventures a nice bit of change to the game without taking away from what made these such fun adventures in the first place.

It is worth noting though, that the events in the game never actually happened in literature. Although Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never wrote a novel or short story about his famous sleuth investigating the dastardly Jack the Ripper, a movie called Murder by Decree was filmed starring the great Christopher Plummer and depicted such an event for celluloid in 1979. This must be where the idea for the game stemmed from, because it was indeed a great film and who would not have wished for Holmes to have gone after the creep of London? Furthermore, the idea is such a good one that a remake of the movie was made in 2001 by the Hughes brothers titled From Hell starring Johnny Depp, which understandably left out the great detective and replaced him with another sort of investigator instead.  Both were very good movies, but highly fictional accounts of the real story and neither involved Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Be that as it may, if you are a fan of Holmes and his deductive reasoning like I am, and you also enjoy immersing yourself in his world a bit on the PC, Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper may just be a nice bit of escapism for you.

To view more screens, hit the link posted at the top of the post.

FileFront has received a bunch of demos and patches this past week, and for once, it seems like the demos are worth writing about. So, to kick things off, lets start with the patches that hit this week, just in case you were unaware that one was available for your game.

As always, for the full list of patches and games, hit the links.

Patches

• Legacy Interactive has released a patch updating The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes to v1.1.
• Codemasters has released a patch for ArchLord to adjust registry entry to point to correct location.
• Crytek has released a patch updating Crysis Wars to v1.2. This patch fixes various problems, but mainly addresses balancing issues.
• Electronic Arts has released a patch updating Spore to v1.03 with 24 new and exclusive exoskeleton limbs for the Creature Creator.

Demos

Strong Bad Episode 4: Dangeresque 3: Move over, James Bond! Strong Bad’s here to show you how it’s done in his hand-crafted cinematic masterpiece. You play Dangeresque, a dirty cop in pursuit of action and big sacks of cash. Can our hero defeat his arch-nemesis and save the world? Looks like he’s gonna have to jump.

7 Wonders: Treasures of Seven: In 7 Wonders, you have to build nine of the most intriguing structures throughout history. You have to match runes to break blocks and uncover the lock and keystone for each round.

Call of Atlantis: Takes players on a fascinating journey around the ancient lands of the Mediterranean to acquire seven mysterious crystals of power able to restore the Altar of Poseidon and save the fabled sunken city of Atlantis.

Ellen Whitaker’s Horse Life: PC demo which allows you to take care of your horse and complete certain tasks.

Murlikin Rescues His Estate: Aliens are threatening to occupy the Earth and the only one who can interfere with this evil plan is… a cat.

Five more demos listed after the jump.

Read the full article

Majestic, creators of Limbo of the Lost, has come under for its blatant thievery of Oblivion and other games of late, and while Tri Synergy has had all unsold copies of the game pulled from shelves and production on the game halted, they seem to be the only ones who have issues a statement up until now.

Yesterday, Majestic decided to issue a statement after being quite for so long – apparently they were on holiday, and had this to say regarding the matter and I highlighted the most interesting sentence:

In response to the shocking notification that some alleged unauthorized copyrighted materials submitted by sources external to the development team have been found within the PC game Limbo of the Lost, we (the development team) have given our consent and full cooperation to both publishers who are recalling all units from all territories immediately.

Please be assured that we do not condone in anyway the use of unauthorized copyrighted materials and if we had been made aware earlier, we would of course have ceased development of the product and rectified the issue prior to the publication process.

To the best of our knowledge no one at Majestic, [European publisher] G2Games or [North American publisher Tri Synergy, Inc.] knew about this infringement and knowingly played any part in it.

We can only apologise to all regarding this issue, as a team we are shocked and mortified regarding these events and we continue to work with said publishers in order to rectify the issue.

To be honest with you, I find it a bit hard to believe that a development team would not look over the game with almost a Sherlock Holmes mentality before unleashing it on the public, if not they are not worth what they are getting paid. That being said, while the audacity of the situation is indeed mind boggling, I personally believe that the game never should have seen the light of day to begin with if the video posted below is any indication of the game’s quality.

Apparently, Tri-Synergy did not look over the game before deciding to publish the steaming pile of crap either, so both are at fault here.

Thanks: VG247

So I am off work for a week due to moving and I come back hoping that my usual Saturday post would give me something actually exciting to write about. Sadly, I was mistaken because there are little demos that are new this week. Seems like a growing trend as of late, but I digress.

The only really hyped up demo that was suppose to hit this week was the GRID demo from Codemasters, but unfortunately yesterday after it was put up, it was quickly pulled due to blackout issues. We received an email stating that it would fixed by later that afternoon, and then another email saying that it will be fixed by Monday. Therefore, if you are still interested in the demo, check back with us Monday and hopefully any outstanding issues with it should have been fixed.

Here are the demos that hit FileFront this week:

• Dead Wake Beta 4: Dead Wake zombie survival game is in production. The game brings barricades, blood, and weapons to zombie fans. Headshots and physics play a major role when player attempts to survive against the zombie hordes.
• The Amazing Brain Train Windows Demo: Grubby Games has released a Windows demo for The Amazing Brain Train, a title that offers 15 different brain games in 5 categories, three different ways to play, 32 unique trophies to unlock, and more. Also available for Mac and Linux.
• Droid Assault Windows Demo: Puppy Games released the Windows demo for Droid Assault, a modern-retro arcade shooter game which is aiming to capture the raw feel of 8-bit games such as Paradroid and Quazatron, with a slick shiny sheen of modern graphics and sound. Also available for Mac and Linux.
• Overclocked: A History of Violence English Demo: Created by award-winning developer House of Tales Entertainment, players will delve into the world of Overclocked to explore the deranged minds of three of the five patients admitted to the Staten Island Forensic Hospital. This highly anticipated Adventure game on PC DVD-ROM is available in stores now.
• Lights of Dreams Demo V2.15: This is the demo version V2.15 of Lights of Dreams : The Angelical Blade… It is free to play…Play as Xylvan to find a way to save the future Earth of 3800…
• The Lost Cases Of Sherlock Holmes Demo: Legacy Interactive release a demo of The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes, a whodunit casual computer game of theft, espionage and murder in which the player must tap their own powers of observation to solve puzzles and identify the culprits.
• Bee Oh Bee Demo: LunaKite has released a demo for Bee Oh Bee, an adventure casual game where you play as a God-bee, bees that live above in the sky to help homeless cute earth-dwelling honey-bees.

Here are the patches that hit this week:

• Harpoon: Advanced Naval Warfare v3.9.2 Patch
• Battlefield 2142 v1.40 to v1.50 Beta Patch
• Fury v35256 to v35416 Client Patch
• Albatross18 S3 Revolution v4.14 Client Patch
• Conquer Online v5021 to v5023 Patch

As always, for the full list of demos and patched available, click here and here.

Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot,

Legacy Interactive announced today the release of The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes, a whodunit casual computer game of theft, espionage and murder in which the player must tap their own powers of observation to solve puzzles and identify the culprits.

The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes is the first computer game officially licensed by the Conan Doyle Estate. It features familiar personalities including Sherlock Holmes, Watson, Mycroft, Inspector Lestrade and more than 100 historical characters that will launch players into the world of the eccentric and famous detective. For each of the 16 individual cases, an overall storyline is revealed and a list of potential suspects is whittled down until the perpetrator is ultimately exposed.

In each case, set in Victorian London, players encounter the following puzzles: a hidden object puzzle, Sudoku, find the difference puzzle, and a picture memory game. There are also additional puzzles and mini-games such as anagrams, cryptograms and jigsaw memory games, which are available at various levels. Legacy has gone to great lengths to insure that the puzzles and mini-games are relevant to the period and storyline of the game as the player journeys from locales such as the British Museum, Big Ben, Kew Gardens, the Royal Theater and others in search of clues that are then evaluated back at 221b Baker Street.

Game Features:

• Play as part of the venerable team of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson
• There are 16 different mystery cases for players to solve
• Over 100 visual puzzles and mini-games tailored to the subject and period of the game reveal a cohesive storyline as you play
• A wide variety of mind-bending puzzles including hidden object, find the difference, picture Sudoku and picture memory games
• Realistic and relevant clues for each case
• Gamers can easily begin their adventure where they just left off; there is no disruption in game play
• Players can explore 40 historically accurate locations around Victorian London
• Officially licensed by the Conan Doyle Estate

For more information on The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes, or to download the game, click here.

Via: Press Release

Another week is upon us, and while we are all sitting around marking the days off our calenders for GTA IV, some other games are being released next week and they deserve to be mentioned just as much as any car-jacking, hooker humping, free for all video game on the market.

I have broken the lists down by Console, Handheld and PC. If any of these release dates change it is not my fault – blame the publisher not the messenger. This list also does not take into account any new DLC for the week,  just retail releases.

Nintendo DS: Cory in the House, High School Musical 2: Work It Out, MLB 2K8 Fantasy All Stars, Rhondo of Swords, Teenage Zombies

Nintendo Wii: Dream Pinball 3D, Emergency Mayhem, Okami, Summer Sports: Paradise Island

PC: Dancing with the Stars, Europa Universalis: Rome, Final Fantasy XI: Vana’Diel Collection 2008, Jack Keane and The Dokktor’s Island, Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis, The Sims 2: Double Deluxe, The Sims 2: Kitchen & Bath Design Stuff,
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2, Turok

PS2: Nothing

PS3: Gran Turismo 5: Prologue

PSP: Nada

Xbox 360: Zilch

A new trailer featuring a minute and a half of footage from Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis was emailed to us this morning from Focus Home Interactive and Frogwares Studios. I must say this game is looking pretty good, and if you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes like I am, you may just want to try it out.

In an adventure game fully playable in 3D real-time, you will not only get into a battle of wits with the legendary Arsène Lupin but lead your investigation into the very heart of London. Famous sites such as the British Museum, the National Gallery and even Buckingham Palace are fully open to players during the adventure and as these investigation sites are real places, they can also be admired by art-lovers as hundreds of works of art, objects, sculptures and paintings have been faithfully reproduced for the purposes of the game. By clicking on each object, you can take a closer look and listen to the personal commentaries from Sherlock Holmes about the work as well.

For more information on Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis check out our previous posts which also includes a link to the demo.

Thank God March is almost over and as my least favorite month of the year comes to a close, hopefully, so will the drought we have had in the way of decent demos.

This week was especially scarce in the demo department (more so than usual) and with the exception of Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis, and Runes of Avalon 2 there is not much to write about – unless you like soccer. However, to appease our readers, Weclock in particular (wink wink nudge nudge say no more) I have listed details about them anyway.

• Doggie Dash – Clean, groom, and pamper Dinertown pets while you grow your business! Help reluctant pet spa partners Walter and Scarlett get a Dinertown business up and running!
• ZOMBZ: Night of a Million Billion Zombies: NOMBZ: Night of a Million Billion Zombies is a 3D action shooter that challenges the player to lead a posse of survivors through a zombie-infested city! Fight! Survive! Escape!
• UEFA Euro 2008 – EA has released a fixed demo for UEFA EURO 2008 which features a match between England and Germany.

The same could not be said for patches. Yes, UT3 and WoW were the most popular but here are some other ones just in case you missed them:

America’s Army: Special Forces, The Settlers: Rise of an Empire, Pacific Storm: Allies, and AVENCAST: Rise of the Mage.

For the full list of demos click here. For patches click here.

Frogwares Studios and Focus Home Interactive have released a demo for Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis (formally known as Sherlock Holmes vs. Arsène Lupin). This new demo contains several hours of gameplay and lets you play as the great detective, hot on the trail of Arsène Lupin, the famous French thief, who plans to steal a precious painting at the National Gallery in London.

This is the fourth game in the Sherlock Holmes adventure series and for more information, visit the official website and our previous posts. Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis is expected to be released for the PC sometime in the Spring.