Kotaku

New Age of Conan Videos Show Braless Demons

"BioShock Extremely Well-Suited To Film"

The wheels of the announced BioShock movie keep on churning. With a big time director aboard and a major screenwriter in talks, the game's publisher Take Two must be thrilled. It is! Just listen to Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two:

BioShock has been hailed as one of the most highly cinematic and richly plotted titles in interactive entertainment, making it extremely well-suited to film... Our ability to attract a major studio and unparalleled creative team speaks volumes about the strength of our BioShock franchise.

Full release after the jump:

The Sims Is Not A Casual Game, Buster

I don't think of it as casual. We were one of the first games that started to attract a broad audience. We were one of the first games that bought in women... To some degree The Sims is more of a toy than a game. People want to create characters, tell stories and explore relationships in a way that is maybe different from their real lives.

Xbox 360 Getting Sex Scene-Less Erotic Game

Once again proving that the Xbox 360 is the console for discerning consumers, 3D computer erotic game TimeLeap [NSFW] is getting an Xbox 360 version. In a newly released TimeLeap visual guidebook, the game's producer confirmed that an Xbox 360 version is planned this year. Interesting as the erotic game tried to capitalize on the popularity of another Xbox 360 title, Namco Bandai's THE iDOLM@STER. For the Xbox 360 version, the hardcore stuff will definitely get the boot, leaving... Well... MAXIMUM RISKY? No, minimum risky.

Hit the jump for TimeLeap dancing!

NVIDIA Boss Weeps For PC Piracy

NVIDIA's Roy Taylor is not, as you can probably hazard a guess, a fan of piracy in the PC games market. So much so that, while speaking with Eurogamer, he's made an impassioned plea, employing the language of the youth of today in order to get his point across:

I think that we've arrived at a point now where I don't know how anyone could ever possibly justify pirating a game. I just don't know how anyone could consider that a cool thing to do - it's not. It sucks.

NVIDIA bombards PC game pirates [Eurogamer]

Listen To StarCraft 2 Producer, Look At StarCraft 2

NVIDIA Dumbing Down Their Product Line

Anyone into computer gaming knows NVIDIA is one of the biggest names in video cards today, but imagine being new to PC gaming, knowing nothing at all about video hardware, and wandering into a Best Buy to try and determine which graphics solution suits your needs. It's like being a man sent to the grocery store for feminine hygiene products (should I get Super?), only slightly less embarrassing. NVIDIA's VP of Content Business Development Roy Taylor says that the company is working to make their products more consumer-friendly.

"It is a challenge that we're looking at right now. There is a need to simplify it for consumers, there's no question," Taylor explained. "We think that the people who understand and know GeForce today, they're okay with it - they understand it. But if we're going to widen our appeal, there's no doubt that we have to solve that problem."

NVIDIA to "simplify" product range [GamesIndustry.biz]

Japanese Game Movie Adaptations Are Crappy, Too!

The History of PC Game ... Packaging?

You know, I can't really argue with the claim that Wes Cherry created the most-played video game ever: Solitaire for Windows (PC) which came out in the early 1990s and was installed on millions of machines worldwide. I think IGN gave it a 10/10 at the time. I kid! I kid!

But the Web site B3TA tracked down Mr. Cherry and, by all appearances, got a legit Q&A with him. A bunch of their commenters sent in questions and according to the article, Cherry got back to them about a year later. The big question, would he play ball with this kind of an interview? Oh yes, he did.

For a long, long time I've been credited unduly... Not so much these days, because the role of a designer is much, much more understood. But for a very long time, I was way, way over-credited for many things.

You know, I don't play Assassin's Creed, I don't own a PC, don't game on PCs, but every time I watch this video I feel a mixture of amusement, sympathy and outrage. Plus I love the jolly music. I imagine it as an accompaniment to some poor bastard stepping on rakes and skateboards cleaning out his garage. Or a Rube Goldberg contraption gone horribly wrong.

And Rube Goldberg describes this Mousetrap of a quit process to a T. The comments on the YouTube vid page helpfully point out he can Ctrl-Alt-F4 on this but, really, unless this is a sick joke, what goddamn imbecile speced out this process? Two load screens. 11 steps. A buck-thirty on the clock. "Loading?! No! I want to quit! Fine ..."

Assassin's Creed, I Can't Quit You [YouTube]

Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI Coming to NA PCs

Devil May Cry 4 PC ALMOST Dated

We've already heard that Devil May Cry 4 is coming to PCs, but now we almost know when. This summer. Yes, that's as specific as Capcom is getting at the moment. In addition, a demo is promised and DMC4 PC will be sporting some new modes, too:

Turbo mode will turn-up the action to insane speeds, while Legendary Dark Knight Mode will harness advanced PC processing power and fill the screen with an unbelievable number of enemies for extra difficulty. Moreover, familiar enemies from the console versions will show-up in new locations in the PC version.

Age of Conan Is Priced In Gold

In a Funcom investor briefing, the company has spilled the pricing strategy for their MMO Age of Conan. United States gamers will pay $59.99 for the game and $14.99/month for the subscription. (Meanwhile, European gamers will pay 49.99 Euro and 12.99 Euro/month.) A quick skim through the briefing reveals some other interesting factoids, like that the game has already gone gold, Funcom expects 500,000-600,000 active subscribers at launch and internal surveys show that a "large proportion" of beta testers would like to buy it. Anyone out there considering cheating on their WoW account?

AoC Briefing [TenTonHammer via Maxconsole]

Though it's currently trendy to declare the imminent and grisly demise of the PC gaming market, there are some legitimate concerns amid all of the sensationalism. Much-publicized NPD numbers showed retail PC sales slumping by $60 million between 2006 and 2007, while the console gaming market continues to burgeon year-over-year. While it's quite true that these numbers quantify only PC retail box sales and not subscription revenue - like how much WoW makes every month - there are issues at hand that are harder to quantify with raw data.

With steep hardware specifications, difficult and inconsistent installs, convoluted patching processes and unstable operating systems, the PC has developed a problematic barrier to entry for most consumers, who've voiced their difficulties in one crucial way — they've moved to consoles. So what will become of PC gaming?

These evergreen features are made for weekends: GamesRadar has a list of the 15 best video game stories of all time. It's good for a midafternoon bull session between the hours of whatever you're playing (still hammering on Bully, myself.)

I haven't played many on the list to be quite honest, as lots are PC games and I am one of those lifelong Mac users (sue me). In fact, the only Portal I played was the interactive novel on a Macintosh Plus back in 1987. Not sure if interactive novels qualify, they might be more novel than game, but that one was outstanding.

I'm also a little surprised that neither Sam & Max nor, for that matter, Full Throttle (an extremely underrated game) didn't make the list. Throttle especially, as it had one of the great finales of all time, when Ripburger goes into the chasm clutching a "Can't beat a Corley" license plate. Indeed.

I've put the full list after the jump, if you want to see what made it without going through the whole article, which has some nice YouTube and flash videos of game highlights.