William reported last week about a weird eBay auction, where a dad caught his son smoking weed and decided to sell off his Christmas present — a copy of Guitar Hero III for the Wii — as punishment. Well, the auction ended yesterday, and the final bid? $9,100. Of course, we’ll have to see if the winner of the auction actually pays. Also, in a section below the original posting, the seller addressed a lot of questions and comments he has received from people. Most interesting of note is his statement that if the winning bidder doesn’t pay, he’ll just go ahead and give the game to his son; and that’s most likely what’s going to happen:

This auction has been lots of fun for us. For the last couple of days, as soon as he comes in the house, the first thing he says to me is “what’s new with the auction?”. We have read many of the comments together (please keep this in mind when writing them) and I think he is enjoying this more than you might expect. As I said, my son and I are more like best friends than “Pa’ and Junior”, and this has become just one more thing we have come to enjoy sharing.So I decided to let him make the decision concerning the fate of the auction. He thinks it would be “stupid” to cancel the auction right now. While I may not completely agree with this, he undeniably has more at stake her than I do. We talked about it over the last couple of days, especially yesterday evening, and came to a conclusion. We figure one of two things will happen.

1. The auction will finish at an absurdly high price due to uncontrolled bidding, and the high bidder will be a newly registered user who with no intention of paying.. Several bidders seem to have registered just to bid on this auction. I am fully expecting the bidding to skyrocket near the end of the auction. There are nearly 400 people watching the auction. Instead of canceling bids, we have decided on something else. If the seemingly LIKELY situation of a non-paying bidder winning the auction is realized, that will be the end of it. I will not beg or plea someone to pay, nor will I give out second chance offers. My son will get the guitar hero game. Just my assertion of this is almost guaranteeing that this will be the outcome. I can just see all of the “Isaac-apologists” rushing out to get an ebay account right now and putting in a bid of $10 000. Well, go for it if you want. As I mentioned in several comments, my son is a smart cookie.

2. Less likely. The auction will finish much higher than I had initially anticipated, and the high bidder will actually pay. We have talked about this, and my son (always one to seize an opportunity) has negotiated a plan of what to do with the money. We have struck a deal. It seems that guitar hero 3 is not the only thing he has ever wanted. The money will go to good, fair use, and depending on how much it actually is, I may use some of it in a more philanthropistic context. I made him understand that the money is NOT HIS and it is not a situation of “higher bids = better present for Isaac”.

Well, look at that. Sounds like this is actually a loving, caring family, rather than the supremely oppressive picture the internet forums have been painting. Not that any of this is going to stop the random strangers out there from condemning a man for parenting his own kid the way he sees fit.

Via eBay

Another week, another batch of demos for you to play, and why not? If, like me, you dread going outside into the cold, frosty air and doing yard work, you can instead feign back issues and play a few demos inside the warmth of your home. So go grab yourself a cup of hot chocolate, some snacks, and then sit yourself down and revel in the warm glow emitting from your computer screen.Here are the demos that hit FileFront this week:

• Stranger: Multiplayer demo for the English version of the game from Fireglow. The multiplayer map called “Rivers of Kront” gives 6 players divided to 3 teams ability to match each other.

  The key to victory on this map is competent using of magical fields which are essence of the magical world of the game.

• Lights of Dreams: The Angelical Blade: Play as Xylvan to find a way to save the future Earth of 3800…Walk, Run, Jump Fly in 50(3 available in the demo) flowers and grass vasts inspirationnal worlds to find 10 Spheres, 11 Parchements and 10 uniques Elements and more than 20 unique items to accomplish your mission. From Xilvan Designs.

• Monster Ball: The trouble with most pool table games is that they lack monsters – at last, here is a game which fixes that. In this snooker-em-up game, your goal is to defeat the monsters invading the pool table. Naturally, you do this by shooting them with the balls. You’ll need to be opportunistic, and make every shot count. You’ll need to be on your guard as well, because these pool sharks will bite. Features fast and colourful 3D graphics, over 150 levels, special challenges, trophies to win, and saveable replays. It’s endlessly replayable too, because no two games are ever quite the same. From Legless Lizard Games.

• Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts: This demo for Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts includes a tutorial and the first two missions of Operation Market Garden. From THQ and Relic.

For the full list of demos that have been released this week, just follow this link.

When I first heard that a sequel to Manhunt was on the horizon, my initial thoughts ran the gamut of “hell yeah”, to “I hope they don’t screw it up”. These sentiments ricocheted through the gaming community along with the bad press Rockstar received over the graphic nature of Manhunt 2. With such controversy and less than stellar media attention, the game was cut to forego an “AO” rating and some of the more gory scenes were blurred out in order to put the game on shelves. While I have to agree that the game does indeed warrant an “M” rating with its current content – my gut feeling upon inserting Manhunt 2 into my Wii was: At what cost to the game were these cuts made? I would soon find out that the cost to the game was very high – yes, there are jabbings, decapitations, crotch kicks, stealthy throat slittings, sex, blood, gore, and many uses of the “f-word”…. so what?

Content such as this is nothing new from Rockstar, and you cannot play any of their games without expecting some sort of violence because the developers just do not have a “pink-fluffy-bunny” sort of mind frame. Before I get to my review of Manhunt 2 for the Wii though, I would like to clarify one thing: I loved the first Manhunt. It scared the living bejesus out of me, and there was nothing that I wanted more than for those feelings of heightened suspense to surface once more with the second installment. Unfortunately, all of my hopes were utterly dashed. Having said this, I will now provide a bit of a back-story for the game before I state my full opinion on the game.
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With a North American release date still not announced, most of Europe has been enjoying Stranger on the PC since mid-November. Recently, Fireglow Games divulged the details surrounding the multiplayer aspect of their newest RPG/RTS game, where you can match your skills against a pal in the world of Kront, imbued with the natural magic contained in your color crystals.

• Up to 8 players in multiplayer mode
• 2 to 4 teams in a team game
• 9 multiplayer maps offer various ways to play

The new multiplayer trailer for Stranger shows the final stage of the game: three players have moved their characters up to the top, and encounter a battle. They engage in combat with all their mercenary troops led by heroes and use all the magic available to them at this moment. Giant scorpions living in the valley play the role of wretched mutes, and you can download the video here or by clicking on the badge below. Be sure and visit the official site too.

Saturday is usually a slow day news day here at Gaming Today, so I tend to post some of the newer demos that have arrived to try and make your Saturday a little less tedious. Unfortunately, today there aren’t any demos to speak of that have not already been announced, so instead I will post some of the newest patches that have arrived. Just click on the name of the patch to get to the download page.

• Beowulf - This patch fixes shaders, load times, and a Windows Vista display bug.

• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - A patch udpating Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare to v1.1. It addresses the issue of Rank / Stat resets reported by users moving from a Modded / Un-ranked server to a non Modded / Ranked Server.

• Culpa Innata – A rare, but major bug which resulted in the game crash while mostly seen in PA inventory screen because of some graphics cards driver incompatibility with the DirectX optimized functionality has been fixed. This bug is rare but nearly consistent on some graphics card, graphics card driver and the DirectX version configurations. The rework of the optimization pipeline of the game now compatible with these and any other configurations. – A few rare logic bugs fixed. – PLAYERS’ SAVES WILL NOT BE AFFECTED BY THIS PATCH AND THEY CAN INSTALL IT AT ANY POINT IN THE GAME PLAY.

• Stranger – Updates the game to the latest version and helps resolve the issue of the game running slow (performs like a slideshow) or displays graphical issues when the game is launched. Please ensure that your Graphics card is within the game specification (Supported Graphics cards. NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or higher / ATI Radeon 9800 or higher with 128MB of Memory) and that you have also tried to reduce the video settings within the games options. These settings can have an impact on the performance of the game if they are all enabled or set to the highest option.

• Timeshift – This update is for all versions of TimeShift and brings it up to v1.2 Fixed “NAT traversal problem” people behind NATs are able to see servers.

Fixed preview picture of character model showing all of the models at the same time
Fixed multiplayer issue when switching Surge gun with another weapon
Fixed grid-like artifacts when Distortion Effects and DOF set to On at 1920×1080 resolution
Fixed multiplayer issue where player can be inside the cargo containers
Fixed a multiplayer bug that allows infinite grenades
Fixed clipping issue in the sentry room on level 1
Fixed a crash after quick load on level 2
Fixed a maphole in multiplayer Map 13
Fixed Time Shield distortion effect
Improved multiplayer performance
Fixed some localization strings
Fixed ZF2 nonprogression at start position
Fixed King of Time incorrect timer bug
Fixed some UI issues
Fixed memory leaks
Fixed multiplayer issue where last player goes to spectator when failed to join full server
Fixes and improvements to network driver
Fixed alt-tab crash in multiplayer
Visual improvements to the grass
Fixed video setting issue

For more patches to many other games, you can click here.

Fireglow games has been spoon feeding us information on Stranger, their upcoming RPG RTS fantasy blend for a few months now, and today they sent us a demo. Want to try the game out and see what all the fuss is about? Well now you can just by clicking on the badge at the end of this post. Unsure what Stranger is all about? Then start by checking out all of our previous posts on the game, which include new screens and a trailer or two. North American release dates still have not been announced, but try the demo out anyway and be sure to let us know what you think.

Fireglow Games have released more screens for Stranger, their upcoming RPG/RTS fantasy game for the PC. Unfortunately, North American still does not have a set release date that I can tell you about, but I am sure we will hear something very soon. In the meantime, you can check out our previous posts on the game, the official website and the new screens they sent us.

Fireglow Games, announced today the retail release dates for Stranger in major European territories. It is fully localized in English, German, and French and European gamers will be able to find the game in stores on the following dates:

• November 23rd, 2007 – in UK and Ireland
• November 16th, 2007 – in German-speaking territories (Germany, Switzerland, Austria)
• December 5th, 2007 – in French-speaking territories.

Stranger combines role-playing with elements of real-time strategy and harbors a unique spell and item enchantment system which allows players to swap the amounts of used crystals to adapt to their enemies strategies – during battle. The level design allows you to fight on several levels at the same time and sports interwoven maps with distinctive tactical options.

Every fantasy world has its own epic story; and Stranger is no exception. Magic, brute force, skills, mystery, treason, friendship, villains and monsters – these are words from this world. But it is not just the usual conflict between light and darkness, there are much more nuances to explore. With the ability to hire, train and control squads of infantry and archers you will have to decide which is more important…… Strength and Weaponry or Stealth and Magic. With three different heroes to decide between, and over a hundred individual monsters you will also encounter tribes, which can either be your allies or enemies.

Features:

• RPG blended with some of the best RTS elements
• 3 main heroes and many units to choose from
• Over 100 different monsters
• Unique and flexible magic system
• Great variety of items and gear
• More than 30 hours of single player campaign
• Multiplayer with up to 8 players
• Level design enables distinctive tactical options

North American release dates are up in the air, and we have seen conflicting reports all over the web, with no one agreeing on when exactly it will hit our shores. I am sure we will have some news regarding Stranger very soon, but in the meantime, enjoy the new screens Fireglow sent us today along with the new trailer, which you can view after the break.
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Apparently, little plastic vaguely gun-shaped thingies are more dangerous than we thought. Over in the the U.K. the Wii Zapper has already received a PEGI-18 rating for when it is released next month. That seems kind of strange to do for a peripheral; even stranger when you consider that it comes bundled with Link’s Crossbow Training, which is mostly derived from a game that received a “T for Teen” rating in the U.S. I suppose most of the games that use the zapper might be rated “M” or “18+,” but I’d bet there’ll also be a few titles that have you shooting water balloons or somesuch. This is probably just an attempt to dissolve some youth gun culture. Me, I’ve still got a cap gun from when I was a kid that looks like a real revolver. I used to point it at cops and go, “Bang bang!” I got shot a lot growing up, but the lawsuits paid off well.

Via SPOnG

Let me tell you a little story that began long long ago; probably a good three hours even at the time of this writing. It all started with a simple concept: I felt like reviewing a new game this week. It seemed like an easy task to just get a bit of entertainment and knock out some of my quota in one fell swoop. In my mind, I saw two choices of new games to review: Beautiful Katamari and Tony Hawk: Proving Grounds. Not the prime choices I would’ve preferred, but it’s what I had to work with. Since my decision rested between two games that were pretty much identical to their years-old predecessors, I chose to go with the cheapest one. And so I set out with a grocery list that had the words “Milk, Bread, Katamari” scribbled on it. Little did I suspect what a chore just finding that last item would turn out to be.

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