The game addresses the console audience by presenting a varying level of difficulty, from your arcade-style Ace Combat battles to full-on simulation. Assisting in the realism will be a damage model for each plane that allows players to holes in their wings and smoke trails during combat, along with detailed landscapes complete with realistic ongoing ground actions. An original score b Oblivion composer Jeremy Soule is just the icing on the cake.

The IL-2 series is one of the best combat flight sims the PC has to offer, so I am extremely interested to see how it fares making the jump to the consoles. Looking good so far!

A TIME TO FIGHT, A TIME TO PREY
Milton Keynes, England - 505 Games will be bringing 1C Publishing’s IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey to the console market for the first time. Developed by Gaijin Entertainment for Xbox 360 and PS3, DiP Interactive for Nintendo DS and DYNAMICSYSTEMS for PSP, the game takes place during the greatest aerial battles of all time (discounting Pterosaurs) and boasts the most realistic landscapes and aircraft seen in any flight sim. IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey will be published by 505 Games under the 1C Label and is due for a 2009 release.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey is based around large-scale aerial combat over the ground-based military operations of World War II. Players participate in the war’s most famous confrontations piloting fighters, battle planes or heavy bombers across a range of thrilling missions. There are five seats of war to engage in – The Battle of Britain, Stalingrad, Berlin, Sicily and Korsun – representing the main airborne battles of World War II in Europe.

As well as advanced environmental visuals enriching the game play, IL-2 also boasts an all new damage effects engine. Players can see real time damage to the aircraft such as holes in the wings and trail lines during dog fights. Hundreds of airplanes taking part in air battles is a distinguishing feature of IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey and the unique environmental engine also produces highly detailed, realistic landscapes that allows players to see a brand new simulation of ground support actions.

Features
• Authentic World War II atmosphere
• Engage in more than 50 thrilling missions from famous historical battles over Eastern and Western Europe and fly historically accurate aircraft
• Completely flexible difficulty level system: from arcade to realistic simulation
• Thrilling multiplayer mode support customisation – from the colour scheme of your plane to your choice of weapons.
• Cutting edge, highly-detailed visuals, realistic sound and original music from Jeremy Soule (composer of Company of Heroes, Dungeon Siege, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Guild Wars, Neverwinter Nights, Prey, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Total Annihilation, Unreal II, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, and many more.)

505 Games will publish IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey on the 1C Label for PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and PSP in 2009.

1C is using cutting-edge technology, including the amazing power of modern consoles, to bring superior games to every market... Our aim is to bring our games to even more players and expand our vision with cross platform development. We are embracing any new gaming technology that will improve our products including digital downloads, consoles, handheld gaming, Epic's Unreal 3 Engine, NVIDIA PhysX and DirectX 10.

Both games will be out late 2009 and will be the first cross-platform titles "from 1C to be developed and published worldwide." Seems like multiplatform is the new, big thing.

1C Announces First 360-PS3 Titles [MCVUK]

Remember Shredz64, Toni Westbrook's Guitar Hero retro port to the Commodore 64? What was once nothing but a fun concept is now a reality, with a playable C64 version of Harmonix's rhythm game that uses a standard guitar controller. It doesn't play stock tunes, as you might expect, but SID files, which Westbrook demonstrates in the above clip. The tune? The Legend of Zelda Overworld Theme, something that only makes us pine for Nintendo remixes in future Wii versions of Guitar Hero.

For more, without all the exposition, check out the second clip.

The only thing that could possibly make this better is a cease and desist from Activision. We know you want to, Activision legal team, so let's just get it over with. Thanks!

Shredz64 [The Shredz64 Project via Waxy.org]

Yeah, we get it. There's an opportunity to save a couple bucks. But why remove the PlayStation 2 chipset altogether, after investing in software emulation and eliminating hundreds of titles from the PS3 library? According to an interview with SCEE reps at GamesIndustry BIZ a "reduced emphasis placed on this feature amongst later purchasers of PS3, as well as the availability of a more extensive line-up of PS3 specific titles" is the reason the company is nixing the once promised support.

Plus, they've got 65 PS3 titles ready for the holidays.

Solution? Buy the 60GB (while they're still available), natch. This is the one time as an early hardware adopter that I don't feel screwed over. Off to hug my Emotion Engine!

40GB PS3 Confirmed for Europe; Sony Gives Up on Backwards Compatibility [GameDaily BIZ]

He smiled...

C&C TV: BattleCast Primetime Episode 1 [Command & Conquer TV via CustomPC]

The name of the game is, of course, public internet humiliation. Send Sony your filmed rendition of one of three classic PaRappa jams and, if you're selected, wait for the community to pass judgement on your rapping skills. You rappin' good? Then maybe you'll win some sweet PaRappa goodies, like a beanie, PSP skins, or a copy of the PSP version.

The best of the best goes to Seattle for PAX. Oh, and that t-shirt? The first 100 entrants get one, so start rappin'. Michael McWhertor

Chop Chop Master Onion's Rap Showdown [PlayStation.com]

Rare denies it.

Purely out of contractual obligation, no, we're not working on KI3, no, we don't have a secret team in the basement finishing off JFG2, no, we're not brainstorming an exciting sequel to It's Mr. Pants and traditionally we're not big players in the RPG market either. Until we're ready to unveil some of the games beyond the new Banjo that we are working on, why not go back and sample some prime Rare goodness from the archives such as NES classics Time Lord or Super Glove Ball?

That certainly doesn't rule out an Xbox Live Arcade release of the first two Killer Instinct games, but it certainly doesn't fill the lil' TJ Combo in my soul with much in the way of combo-breakin' happiness. Guess we'll have to wait a little bit longer to engage in more ridiculous pirate skeleton versus giant lizard battles. Michael McWhertor

Scribes - June 25, 2007 [Rare]

It is heartening to see that the concept of corporate responsibility can, at time, ooze over into the gaming industry.

At today's 2007 Games for Change Festival Microsoft announced the Xbox 360 Games for Change Challenge, a year-long game design competition for college students around the world aimed at tackling important issues through gaming.

For this first competition student developer groups will work on creating a game based on global warming using Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Express software. The competition's three finalists will receive "financial compensation for education" and the winners of the competition will land an internship at Microsoft Game Studios, Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of global marketing for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, told me in a recent interview. He added that the final games could end up appearing on the Xbox 360 Live Arcade, Games for Windows Live Arcade or MSN Arcade, but that a final decision had yet to be made.

Bell said Microsoft officials had originally debating having several categories for this competition, ones that could explore such diverse topics as social conflict, world hunger and other global issues, but felt that the recent successes of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth had made the topic of global warming particularly timely and one that often spurs passionate debate.

"We have no forgone conclusions about the approach or conclusions (the games) will make," he said. "What we really want to do is to use the vehicle of games as a way to increase education and information and engagement on the part of all different constituents."

While the competition will include more than 100 universities worldwide, Bell said they did not yet know how many teams from each university would participate. The competition will kick off in August and run through next spring, with the winners being announced at an event in Paris in August, 2008, he said.

Bell said Microsoft decided to create this competition in part out of a sense of being a good corporate citizen.

"The gaming industry is clearly a large and profitable industry," he said. "We also want to try and promote the exploration of new genres and titles."

I hope Nintendo and Sony take that as a challenge. Brian Crecente

I'd give you some impressions, but it was still downloading when I left the house this morning. I'm hoping the console controls add something novel to the experience, as the PC version, while an excellent entry into the series, felt a little stale to me. At the very least it has camera support, so I can finally stop flashing Uno players! Michael Fahey

That's why for this week's Frankenreview we're covering Westwood's sequel to Tiberian Sun (released 8 years ago already, btw), Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. It's not just another RTS. It's another RTS with campy video. (And I mean that as a compliment).

So what did the "experts" have to say?

Yahoo
This is probably the first Westwood style RTS that has almost everything you could want. It has hotkeys, easy unit selection options, ample visual cues, solid tactical AI, useful unit stances, formations, big obvious buttons, and helpful tool tips. You can even set an adjustable speed slider for multiplayer games and skirmishes. Cranked way down, Command & Conquer 3 is absolutely languid.
Gamespot
Some of the maps and textures are somewhat bland, but you aren't bound to care for long...In the most extreme battles, your screen will fill with mighty blasts and streams of lasers, as if you were the main player in a sci-fi action film. Amazingly, the game's performance never suffers, with few noticeable drops in frame rate and brief loading times.

Eurogamer
It's not really even trying to be a serious RTS - it just wants to live up to its name. You command, usually by drawing a big rectangle around everything on screen, and then you conquer, usually by then right-clicking on an enemy power station so their defences run out of juice and you can then kill everything else...this C&C is about entertaining rather than challenging.

Games Rader
Right off the bat, you'll notice how fast the game plays. Even at the default setting, there is little time for planning what you will build next or in which direction you will expand. Get a build order memorized and go, go, go; this is one of the most frantic real time-strategies in recent years....This is good, in a way, since it means you'll get to the action quickly.

Games For Windows (1up)
The last time we saw live bodies in a game was...what, last century?...Whether it's Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica) preaching you up in punky fishnets, Josh Holloway (Lost) drawling like everyone's favorite Southern-fried wiseass...personality's the reason why you really can't miss Tiberium Wars...[it's a] revival of steely actors staring you straight in the eye and declaiming "Save our bacon or else!"... Consequently, this sequel...has something that most of its peers don't: personality.
I miss the early CD titles and their obsession with awkward, cheesy live action video. So this is a must-buy in my book...though I'm waiting for the 360 version. Mark Wilson

I really take no sides in the PC VS. console dispute, so here are the four latest screens for each version. Michael Fahey

How darling! Insert Credit points to Jason Winters and his Commodore 64 palmtop. Backstory: Jeri Ellsworth created a line of C64 plug 'n plays that were sold to Walmart and the like. The interesting part was that she put the entire thing on a chip, making it possible to create devices like this truly cool C64 palmtop. Nice work. Brian Ashcraft

The C64 Palmtop [Insert Credit]

"Plus, for the winner, the Spotlight cam gives you an unchallenged ten seconds of fame to let your enemy know exactly how you feel about your victory."

If you do plan on playing C&C 3: TB via the 360, keep your favorite recording medium handy. If there's one thing the internet needs it's more videos of people acting like idiots. Michael Fahey

C&C3 360 to support camera [Eurogamer -

The computer comes in a black chassis and includes some fancy new two-stage cooling system as well as an Intel quad-core overclocked processor.

Dell's H2C cooling system is a custom two-stage process. First, a liquid-to-air heat exchanger that works like a car's radiator removes most of the heat from the processor. Then, a fluid chiller removes more heat with ceramic-based thermoelectric cooling (TEC) modules like those used in space shuttles to transfer heat from the sunny side to the cold, dark side in space. Sensor controls help prevent the formation of frost or condensation by helping to keep the processor slightly above ambient room temperature.

The base $5,500 computer comes with:
— Factory-installed Dell H2C two-stage cooling solution including a fan, liquid-to-air heat exchanger, TEC fluid chiller, and circuitry that regulates the fan and TEC voltage to cool the processor efficiently during normal and over-clocked operation

— Intel(R) Core Extreme QX6700 quad-core processor factory overclocked to 3.2 GHz

— Two NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) 8800 GTX graphics cards with quad scalable link interface technology for high-definition gaming resolution

— 4 GB(2) 667MHz DDR2 memory for fast loading of programs and screens

— Dual 160 GB(3) 10,000 RPM hard drives (with room for two additional hard drives)

— Dual optical drives

— Dell UltraSharp(TM) 2007WFP 20-inch widescreen flat-panel monitor with Dell AS501 flat-panel mount speakers

— The Razer Tarantula(TM) gaming keyboard and Razer Copperhead(TM) gaming mouse

— Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Media Center Edition 2005 operating system

— One-year limited warranty(4) with designated sales service and support queue

Hit the jump and the rest of the non-gaming announcements from Dell. Brian Crecente

LAS VEGAS —(Business Wire)— Jan. 9, 2007 Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) added a high-performance desktop to its portfolio of XPS(TM) products, and introduced two new widescreen flat-panel displays and a Digital Home Media Suite, here today at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Details and availability of the new products are provided below. More information, including high-resolution images, is available at http://www.dell.com/ces2007news.

Dell XPS 710 H2C Edition Gaming Desktop

The XPS 710 H2Ceramic (H2C) Edition desktop comes in a midnight-black chassis and offers patent-pending cooling technology designed for serious gamers who want to push performance beyond tested limits. Dell developed the H2C design to better cool the processor, extend its life and help the system run more reliably than conventional cooling systems even when the system is overclocked. The Intel quad-core processor is factory overclocked(1) for extreme gaming and video editing, and backed by specialized XPS technicians.

Dell's H2C cooling system is a custom two-stage process. First, a liquid-to-air heat exchanger that works like a car's radiator removes most of the heat from the processor. Then, a fluid chiller removes more heat with ceramic-based thermoelectric cooling (TEC) modules like those used in space shuttles to transfer heat from the sunny side to the cold, dark side in space. Sensor controls help prevent the formation of frost or condensation by helping to keep the processor slightly above ambient room temperature.

The XPS 710 H2C Edition starts at $5,499 and is available worldwide. The base configuration includes:

— Factory-installed Dell H2C two-stage cooling solution including a fan, liquid-to-air heat exchanger, TEC fluid chiller, and circuitry that regulates the fan and TEC voltage to cool the processor efficiently during normal and over-clocked operation

— Intel(R) Core Extreme QX6700 quad-core processor factory overclocked to 3.2 GHz

— Two NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) 8800 GTX graphics cards with quad scalable link interface technology for high-definition gaming resolution

— 4 GB(2) 667MHz DDR2 memory for fast loading of programs and screens

— Dual 160 GB(3) 10,000 RPM hard drives (with room for two additional hard drives)

— Dual optical drives

— Dell UltraSharp(TM) 2007WFP 20-inch widescreen flat-panel monitor with Dell AS501 flat-panel mount speakers

— The Razer Tarantula(TM) gaming keyboard and Razer Copperhead(TM) gaming mouse

— Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Media Center Edition 2005 operating system

— One-year limited warranty(4) with designated sales service and support queue

Dell UltraSharp(TM) 2707WFP 27-Inch Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor

Dell's first 27-inch monitor features a stylish, brushed aluminum bezel atop a black glass stand that can also tilt and swivel. The monitor's Dell TrueColor technology provides 92 percent color gamut coverage of the NTSC color space to gamers, photographers and digital media "prosumers" thereby enabling highly vibrant and vivid images such as deeper reds and crisper blues. The wider color spectrum expands capabilities for users whether they are editing video, working with CAD applications or enjoying the latest games. It's available immediately in the U.S. and starts at $1,399. Additional features include:

— 27-inch widescreen viewable image size

— Maximum resolution of 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA)

— 6 ms response time(5) with 1,000:1 contrast ratio

— Dell TrueColor Wide Cold-Cathode Fluorescent Lighting (Wide-CCFL) backlight that delivers deep and vibrant reds, greens and blues and accurate color representation

— Integrated 9-in-2 media card reader in a slim monitor bezel

— Beveled glass base with solid aluminum chassis

— Height-adjustable stand with tilt and swivel capabilities

— Four USB 2.0 ports for connecting devices such as digital cameras and printers

— Three-year limited warranty(4)

Dell E228WFP 22-Inch Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor

With a 5-millisecond response time(6), the Dell E228WFP widescreen flat panel LCD monitor presents images, documents, graphics and video with stunning detail, vivid color and smooth motion. The 22-inch widescreen display delivers price/performance and rich productivity features, and can also be used for watching videos and playing games. It's available immediately in the U.S. and starts at $329. Additional features include:

— 22-inch viewable image size

— Maximum resolution of 1680 x 1050

— Lets users view Web pages or documents side by side and run multiple applications simultaneously for improved productivity

— DVI-HDCP ready connectivity

— Tilt capability

— Wall-mountable for flexible installation and convenience (kit sold separately)

— Three-year limited warranty(4)

Dell Home Media Suite

For the first time, Dell is introducing a bundle of products that will gear up the family room — or any room — of a home. The bundle will enable customers to receive digital cable, including premium high-definition programming, and easily view or record it onto PCs.

The Home Media Suite, available in the United States after the introduction of Microsoft's Vista operation system later this month, will include the following:

— XPS 410 core 2 duo, 2GB memory, 1 terabatye RAID disk array, DVD/RW

— Loaded with Windows Vista when available

— Creative Precision Monitor speakers

— Full suite of entertainment software

— Creative Live! Voice webcam

— 27-inch flat panel monitor

— Dell Photo All in One 966 printer

— Linksys 802.11 draft N band router

— Linksys powerline AV bridge

— Digital cable tuner for premium HD TV

About Dell

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services they trust and value. Uniquely enabled by its direct business model, Dell sells more systems globally than any other computer company, placing it No. 25 on the Fortune 500. For more information, visit http://www.dell.com. To get Dell news direct, visit http://www.dell.com/RSS.

Pricing, specifications, availability and terms of offers may change without notice. Taxes, fees and shipping and handling charges are extra, and vary. Dell cannot be responsible for pricing or other errors, and reserves the right to cancel orders arising from such errors.

(1) Overclocking may cause system instability and reduce the operating life of your system components. Dell Tech Support will verify the full functionality of the CPU at the factory default setting and support the CPU performance settings available within the system BIOS. Dell does not provide technical support for any hardware or software issues arising from any third party application, such as NVIDIA nTune 5.0, used to enable overclocking.

(2) The total amount of available memory will be less than 4GB. The amount less depends on the actual system configuration. To fully utilize 4GB or more of memory requires a 64-bit enabled processor and 64-bit operating system.

(3) For hard drives, GB means 1 billion bytes and TB equals 1 trillion bytes; actual capacity varies with preloaded material and operating environment and will be less. On Dimension, XPS, and Inspiron systems, for Norton Ghost 10, Norton 7 Restore and Dell DataSafe users, up to 25% of the stated hard drive capacity may be utilized by your system as dedicated backup space. With Dell Factory Image Restore installed, Windows Vista users will have 10GB of their hard drive capacity set aside for a recovery image.

(4) For a copy of our guarantees or limited warranties, please write Dell USA L.P., Attn: Warranties, One Dell Way, Round Rock, TX 78682. For more information, visit http://www.dell.com/warranty

(5) Typical response time is 6 ms from grey to grey and 16 ms from black to white.

(6) Typical response time is 5 ms from grey to grey.

[Thanks, Tobias]

Details are few and far between. Alls we knows is that this is a giant Commodore logo with a monitor and working C64. Cool, but where the hell ya supposed to put it? Brian Ashcraft

Big Ass Commodore Thingy [Cathode Tan]

Found at Sony's offices in the Yasuda Building, the best in next-gen toilets. Complete with two urinals, a toilet, and darkness. Yes, call it "The Pee-Station." Brian Ashcraft

You know, P.A.N.I.C.S. — the parodic F.E.A.R. machinima by the Rooster Teeth boys — is about a year old at this point. Heck, Brian even wrote about the first couple of episodes a year back or so. But I'm replaying F.E.A.R. now — still jumping at every site of Alma, the spider-crawling ghost girl — and it tickles me more than ever. So I've congregated all five parts of the P.A.N.I.C.S. series into one post. Hit the jump for the next four parts. Don't thank me, it beats writing for my paycheck. Florian Eckhardt

If this was about any game but Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars I probably wouldn't have bothered posting, but anything that has the words Command and Conquer in it gets me all hot and bothered.

EA LA announced today that Joe Kucan, the actor who has played the character Kane in all of the Command and Conquer games, will once more be playing Kane.

Fortunately, EA threw in a little bit of interesting background on the game's plot as well to keep my interest. I slapped the full press release on the jump. Brian Crecente

EA Los Angeles (EALA) is thrilled to reveal today that Joe Kucan, the original actor who portrayed the character Kane in Command & Conquer (C&C) games over the last decade, is reprising his role as the megalomaniacal leader of the Brotherhood of Nod (Nod) in Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars (C&C 3). Kucan will appear in an array of high-definition, live action video sequences that seamlessly tie the game's epic story together. These full-motion video sequences will also feature an unparalleled, diverse cast and will help bring the story behind the Tiberium Universe to life.

"Kane lives indeed!" said Joe Kucan, the actor who originated the popular villain over a decade ago. "I am looking forward to capturing the imagination of a whole new generation of C&C fans and the series' avid supporters. EALA has done some amazing work, and I am truly honored to be back in the Brotherhood."

About C&C 3
March, 2047. A massive nuclear fireball explodes high in the night sky, marking the dramatic beginning to the Third Tiberium War and long-awaited return of the most groundbreaking Real-time Strategy franchise (RTS) of all time.

The critically-acclaimed C&C series returns with C&C 3. Setting the standard for the future of RTS gaming once more, C&C 3 takes you back to where it all began—the Tiberium Universe.

In 2047, Tiberium has blanketed the Earth, which is now divided into zones based on the level of Tiberium infestation. Pristine Blue Zones represent 20% of the planet's surface and are the last refuge of the civilized world. Partially habitable Yellow Zones make up 50% of the planet's surface; most of the world's population lives in these war-torn and ecologically ravaged areas. The remaining 30% of the planet is uninhabitable, a Tiberium wasteland swept by violent Ion Storms. Red Zones are like the surface of an Alien planet.

The infamous Kane has returned to lead the Brotherhood of Nod in a massive global assault on the Global Defense Initiative and the few remaining Blue Zones left on the planet. Only you can stop him. The fate of humanity - and the planet - is in your hands.

Featuring state-of-the-art, next-generation graphics, an epic story with live action, full-motion video sequences, and the classic fast-paced C&C style of play, C&C 3 sets the standard for the single player RTS experience. When you decide to test your skills online, a suite of truly innovative features, such as the ability to transform online battles into a spectator sport, unfold.

Right now, it's simply a spartan, quasi-deco white stage illuminated by Nintendo red lights into a pinkish glow. Clips of several people playing the Nintendo DS bombard. What appears to be a drunken Welsh cabbie. A hyperactive albino. An octagenarian gumming droolily through a puckered grin. Children are few and far between. They really are emphasizing bringing new gamers to the fold, and not merely the corruption and lassitude of today's punkish youths.

10:02 - Just realized that this is going to be in some foreign gibberish. This indicates very clearly to me exactly how little I understand how any of this "journalist" stuff works. I wonder how the social misanthropes about me, visibly oscillating smell waves into the air to create a sort of shimmering effect in front of the Nintendo stage, seem just so much more capable. I'm now hysterically flagging down someone who is handing out headsets, desparate pleading in my eyes.

10:04 - The headsets have those uncomfortable foam ear pieces that I despise so much. I am, however, relieved that they are not the variety that I need to plunge directly into the orifice of my ear canal.

10:09 - "Wii prove our promise" is the motto of this press conference. I figured this out by reading over the German's shoulder ahead of me. He typed it onto his laptop, then emphasized it, as if English were ancient Latin. Due to the vagaries of infinite recursion, as soon as I write that last sentence, someone behind me begins to giggle and type frantically.

I still hate the name Wii. It just encourages jackass puns like this. Is endless misspellings of the 'we' what Lewis Carroll was crucified for?

I'm guessing the big news, the promise being referred to, is date or price... what else is there? Erotic I/O port? I know that date and price are probably wishful thinking though.

10:14 - One minute to go. It's standing room only. It just occurred to me that you can tell the Europeans from the Americans - the Europeans are all sitting down, quite impotent in the art of kicking their way to the front of a maddened crowd. Americans, on the other hand, impotently twiddle their thumbs, expecting some sort of omnipotent power to rigorously enforce the sanctity of the single-file queue. I snicker.

10.21 - General Manager of Nintendo Germany (find out name) Dr Bernd Fakesch comes on. His entire spiel is to compare the con's motto (expand definition of gaming) with the Wii. Interesting: Wii is pronounced by translator as "Dubya Eye Eye". This is adorable.

10.27 - The translator is terrible, but Faksech brings up a psychology of media report that makes distinctions between natives and immigrants, where the former are raised with a media form, therefore being comfortable with it, and the immigrants are those who come to it later in life. Obviously, Nintendo is aiming at bringing immigrants into the fold.

10.28 - Wii "a new chapter in video game history. Game controls represent the greatest technological limitation in gaming, in that they prevent people who have never played video games to try them." Touch! Generations is mentioned several times as representing the entire new strategy.

10.32 - Germany's sales numbers of the DS include a whopping 42%for DS. 44% of female users. Nintendogs is the only game saccharine enough to sway the ladies, apparently.

10.38 - A suspiciously handsome Germanic Brad Pitt look-alike leaps on stage and nervously explains what he likes about Brain Training. That he likes Brain Training validates the theory that supermodels are stupid almost universally. His name is not flashed up on the screen, so who even knows who this dude is.

10.39 Clip with strange supermodel/actor plays. It is not translated. "Rot" he says into his DS... they cut out the part where he Brain Age doesn't recognize his pronunciation until he skewers his tongue with a fork.

10:43: "13th of the October Launch..." gets me excited. But that aposiopesis is bullshit. It's for a German game called "English Training".

"I love music, JA?"

The DS doesn't like the pretty boy's handwriting. He's asked to write "She can speak english"... he has a difficult time with it. The audience applauds, duly impressed by Aryan Pitt's acumen with the Bard's mother tongue. I am reminded of Manuel from Fawlty Towers, impersonating a talking moose heads: "I can Speak English. I learned it... from a book." Insert your own trilling r's.

Pretty-boy gets the worst rating for English that English Training will give: "OK".

10:45 New game: Action Loop, described as "like Tetris", "drop the balls in the right order... real big fun!" I've never heard of it, but there are some appreciative murmurs about me.

10:48 Nintendo DS coming to Europe in Pink on the 27th October 2006. Another special guest whose name I don't catch... it must be taken as read for the average German. She looks eerily like Paris Hilton

Ashcraft ahoy! "We like this pink model because it's aimed at fashion conscious women." Ashcraft, Dr. Bernd fakesch, General Manager of Nintendo Europe? He just called you gay.

10:54 A lot of upcoming games are shown, nothing that really seems new. Super Mini Mario World, Action Loop, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Some awesome game involving a samurai running around (The title appears to be in kanji, and therefore mystifies me), English Training, Gray? Starfox, Sudoku Master, Zelda. Zelda looks swell — I don't remember it being possible to draw notes on the map.

10:55 - Some breakdancers undulate and butt slide on stage, then start dancing with wiimotes. They're really good at pretending to play games.

11:00 - Okay, here we go. The "Double U, Double I". It turns out that semantic justifications for the objectively terrible names are cringe-worthy no matter what country you go to.

11:01 - Sleepy journalists spring to tautness like a bobbing crowd of phalluses when the Wii is mentioned.

11:01 - Feel bad for that last line when a 7 year old girl walks on stage. She's going to play the Wii.

11:01 - All the sound drops out, Then it comes back but the translation is gone. My job just got either a lot easier or a lot harder, depending on how lazy I am.

11:03 - The little girl, a granny and a pretty boy Aryan begins to play Wii on stage. Wii Tennis. As near as I can tell, the adults team up against the little girl. It actually looks a little boring to play. I haven't seen a single serve returned in the entire demo."That was almost as fun as Wimbledon", says Dr. Faksech. An audible groan collectively exudes from the audience.

11:06 - Translation comes back, just in time for them to kick the granny and little girl off stage and show Mario Strikers Charged. I immediately raise the spectre of a thousand game reviewers everywhere by saying to myself, "This looks like a real mixed bag." On one hand, it appears to have Donkey Kong fatality moves. Mario Strikers Charged. Mario skydives out of the sky to land in the field. When he takes a power shot, he leaps into the air and propels a series of balls down at the goal. The goal then defends in first person by waving asround the Wiimote. But on the other, the game looks surprisingly drab on its overview screen. The level is entirely brown, the teams made up of Boos and Mushrooms. I suspect that is probably less of an issue with the art design itself and more a bad pick of a demonstrable level.

11:16 - Battalion Wars 2 coming to Wii. Let's hope this one is a step up from the last.

11:17 - I decide to stop taking pictures unless something frickin' amazing happens. There's like a thousand people covering every stray photon of reflective light in here, and they look like they actually know what they are doing.

11:18 - A trailer plays, showing the great games they are showing. They appear to be recycling the same old E3 Wii trailer. Super Mario galaxy, Excite Truck, etc.

And that's it. The lights dim. Booth babes start icily grinning and gobbling doofuses pounce upon them to have their pictures taken. There doesn't appear to be anything really big here — date and price are still unannounced. It's certainly aimed very strongly at gamers, and German gamers in particular... but it's clear that this isn't the venue for a huge global announcement. Heck, they didn't even drag Miyamoto's skeleton along.

Off to the Microsoft Presser next. Florian Eckhardt

Hardball And Summer Games Beadwork [Aeropause]

Even though Warren Spector has moved onto new projects at Junction Point (where he's reportedly going to do something dayoosexy anyway, in an episodic format), he still pines for his lost children. Warren Spector misses Deus Ex!

Speaking to UK publication PC Zone (passed on via Computer & Video Games), Spector laments over the problems of intellectual property ownership. "I wish I knew, but you'd have to ask someone at Eidos about that. I'd love to go back there, myself," he said to the magazine. "There are plenty more games to set and stories to tell in that universe. I miss the Dentons a lot...Hey, Eidos, wanna sell the IP?"

Yeah, Eidos. You suck. Sell the IP already. Maybe Valve will put up the cash and help Spector out. Florian Eckhardt

Warren Spector Still Loves Deus Ex [1Up]

Theatre of War
This is a real-time strategy game that depicts the large World War II battles. There was a significant amount of time put into research of World War II to make this game absolutely accurate. It took a team of three historians researching for 18 months before this game was ready to be developed. It even gets accurate on the level of the way the troops enter and exit the authentic tanks.

It seems like an average, run of the mill tactical RTS. What makes this stand out is the historical accuracy and precision that was put into development.

Battle Lord
Battle Lord is the stand-out title from 1C this year. Unfortunately the 2007 release date is a bummer. It is a fantasy adventure game that uses both real-time gameplay and turn-based gameplay. The world interaction is all done real time while the battles are done in a traditional turn-based. It looked good and the gameplay seemed promising with the use of real-time and turn-based gameplay.

Death to Spies
Like Theatre of War, Death to Spies is taking a historical approach to a third-person stealth action game. This title, called Smersh, in Russian means death to spies. Smersh also happened to be the name of a set of counterintelligence departments in the Soviet Army during World War II. They arrested traitors, spies and deserters.

The game is based on actual historic events. It has a lot of stealth aspects where you have to use the surrounding environment to complete your missions. It also incorporates a lot of common logic.

Whirlwind Vietnam
Whirlwind Vietnam is another historical flight sim that places you inside the cockpit of the American Huey helicopter used heavily during Vietnam. The environments are accurate and completely historical. Inside the cockpit you can operate multiple seats including the co-pilot and gunner. Unfortunately the Huey is the only vehicle you can pilot, so repetitive gameplay may be a concern.

You Are Empty
You Are Empty is a first person shooter set in a 1950s alternate universe. It takes place in a Soviet Union environment. In this town the Soviets tried to create a perfect town by engineering humans. The experiment went entirely wrong and now you have to fight your way through the town filled it mutants, including a giant mutated chicken. This one keeps some of 1C's obsession with history by including real soviet environments all the way down to authentic signs on the wall.

If I happen to be around when it arrives, I'll make sure to keep you appraised.

Rumor has it that we will be getting an Xbox 360 review kit this week with a bunch of the launch titles to play on it. Because I write for the Rocky Mountain News, two of us will actually be landing a 360 soon. We'll both make sure to post our impressions and some photos up as they roll in.

I gotta go run out and buy a dozen roses to give to the FedEx guy for when he arrives with the 360.

And I thought David Jaffe just produced kick-ass games, little did I know he also had some hardcore ranting skills. Last week Jaffe posted a "Plea to The Game Journalist" to stop being such fanboy, industry suck-ups and start doing their jobs. I couldn't agree more. Here's his excellent P.S.

ps. There are SOME mags/sites that ARE doing some really nice writing about games in my opinion. So it's not a total wasteland in that respect....and NO I won't name them. I think that crosses the line from a standpoint of hurting Sony in that I don't want to be the guy who is out there bashing specific magazines and then see those mags take it out on Sony games just for spite. But catch me in public and you know I'll spill the beans! Oh, by the way, I don't dislike ANY of the key magazines or websites. I really do think they all do at least a few things really well and I gladly pay for them all each month/year. I'm just talking in regards to the issue of real, meaty game journalism.

Oh, but I will say this to ALL the fucking print mags: LESS FUCKING PREVIEWS AND MORE FEATURES!!!! I can get my previews on the web a shit load faster than I get them from you. I wanna read some STORIES and MEATY INTERVIEWS in the print mags....and I wanna spend more than 5 minutes reading your magazine that I've paid 5 bucks for. I really should be READING your magazine, not just FLIPPING FUCKING THRU IT!!! More content please!!!

Did you see ROLLING STONE with the BONO interview?!? Give me THAT but with KOJIMA....OR MIYAMOTO! And no more of this bullshit about how he plays the fucking banjo and likes to garden. Wow, that's hard hitting! Shit guys, dig into the man and let us know what makes him tick, what he really likes and dislikes, his political views, what his stresses are, what his vices are, does he feel stress to save Nintendo,etc....you know, go and WRITE something! Man, I would gladly pay triple for a mag like that! And shit, if you guys don't champion the real visionaries of this biz in a meaty and detailed and challenging way, who ever will?!?

That rantish column received nearly a hundred links and more than 60 comments, it also spurred Jaffe to post a second time on the subject to better explain his points and respond to some of the chatter out there.

Bottom line, in my mind, is that game journalists need to be journalists first and gamers second. It's great to love video games and great to have some knowledge on the subject to help put things into context. But covering gaming needs to be about getting past the press releases, past the shwag and fanboy mentality and digging into what makes a game good or bad and what the industry is doing right or wrong.

The good news is that the mainstream media is waking up to the power, money and importance of gaming and have started covering it as a real and important industry.

The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Mercury News all have excellent gaming writers. More importantly by far is that those papers and others are starting to create fulltime positions for their gaming writers, so the days of reporters having to cover games in their spare time for a paper are going to go away.

I speak with some experience on this. I'm a fulltime reporter at the Rocky Mountain News covering crime (something I've reported on for major dailies for the past 11 years) and the publisher of our paper recently approached me about becoming a fulltime game writer.

The reason newspapers are suddenly willing to make the plunge is because the gaming industry has finally pushed enough into the mainstream for newspapers to realize that they can see a significant increase in both advertising and in young readers if they start to cover gaming.

We're in for some interesting days as game sites, blogs, magazines and newspapers compete for the same readers. Mark my words, expect some major changes in the way the industry is covered.

A PLEA TO THE GAME JOURNALIST and DON'T WANNA BE NO INDUSTRY RANTER! [David Jaffe's Thoughts on Video Games]

I ve been posting about expected Xbox 360 shortages for weeks now and over that time I ve started to form an opinion about how probable they are.

I think what is mostly likely going to happen is that on launch day there will indeed be shortages of the console, but by the end of the year anyone who wants one will be able to get one.

The main reason I think this is because I can t imagine that Msoft would deliberately shoot their head start in the next-gen war in the foot. But, on the other hand (or foot), their appears to truly be issues about launch day supplies.

The thing that got me thinking about the concept of a double launch was something the Best Buy mole told me. He said that while their initial supply was going to be meager, they were expecting a much, much larger shipment later that week. Yes, days later.

This would serve to both create a launch window buzz and still allow Msoft to flood the market with 360s by the end of the year.

What do you think?

The Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion for the Playstation Portable has gone gold and looks like it's going to ship later this month. The Bandai RPG is going to feature more than 100 characters, 50 hours of gameplay and (gasp) a story!!! Bandai is heralding it as the first "true role-playing game" for the PSP. Haven't I head that one before.

The Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion [Official Site]

The Llamma has posted a detailed HowTo for cracking open an Xbox 360 controller and changing the colors of the LED lights. It seems like an awful lot of work just to convert green to orange or blue.

Wired Xbox 360 LED Lighted Controller Mod [Llamma]

GolinHarris, PR firm to the stars and Nintendo, had their own little Halloween happening. Here's a few pics of the people behind the press releases in full party garb:

Nintendog

E3 booth babes

Supreme Court Justice Nominee KFS with skater girl.

Halloween Costume Entries [Kotaku]

Electronic Arts just landed The Simpsons. The LA studio of the developer giant will be handling the games, the first of which will land on the next-gen systems. The EALA studio will be working closely with Fox's Gracie Films and The Simpsons writers. The Guardian's Gamesblog has posted some odds for what form the first EA Simpson's game will take:

Medal of Honor-style FPS - 25/1
Lord of the Rings-style battle tactics - 10/1
Sims-style virtual soap opera - 3/1
Free-roaming driving adventure Evens

Since The Simpsons have already done the whole GTA genre to death, I'm predicting the first game will be a moody adventure game where you roam Springfield as Homer trying to topple a baker's dozen of Route 66-esque roadside advertising giants in an attempt to save Marge from the clutches of her sisters.

EA Adopts The Simpsons [Gamesblog]

Sony has finally gotten around to opening their site for buying and downloading music and videos. MovieSquare has 268 titles up for sale so far with the items ranging in price from lesss than $3 to about $9. You'll be shocked to hear that it's a Japanese site. Where's my downloadable movies and music dammit?

Sony Opens Site for Movie and Music Download [PSP Rumors]

Leaked Nintendo Revolution details or the desperate attempts of a Nintendo fan to deal with the next-gen console's "revolutionary" remote controller? I'm voting on the latter.

Playbomb has been receiving leaked details and perplexing images of the Nintendo Futurna. The device will come with collapsible screen that you will have to set up in your den so you can play games and which allows for "naked eye" stereoscopic 3D. The leaker, who has dubbed himself Phoenix, goes on to say that the Futurna will have one more key peripheral which will be announced in less than a month.

I'm thinking that it's got to be a La-Z-Boy and a bowl of popcorn, because the device already comes with a remote control and a projection screen. The Revolution is a 70's entertainment center, I've figured it out!

Nintendo Futurna. Not VR but cool [Playbomb]

I think I like this new Xbox 360 ad, but I haven't decided yet. I guess I'm not used to advertising for a console that centers around goofing off outside in a playground.

Xbox 360 Ad [Putfile]