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Stardock’s Answer To DRM: Goo

With Steamworks’ new CEG technology preparing to make DRM obsolete, Stardock has unveiled their own three-letter acronym answer to digital rights management: Goo. What is Goo? Goo stands for Game Object Obfuscation. What it does is allow game publishers to encapsulate their game’s executable file together with Stardock’s Impulse Reactor virtual platform in a single…

Here’s How You Play The New Punch-Out!!

Direct from the 2009 Game Developers Convention, here’s someone demonstrating how to play the new Wii version of Punch-Out!! The person playing Punch-Out!! in this clip is making it look rather easy, which is a relatively good thing. Considering how badly motion controls have been implemented in another recent boxing franchise revival, ease-of-use is a…

Boom Blox Bash Party Preview: Slingshots Ahoy

The original Boom Blox may have been a critical hit, but it never quite sold up to expectations. This time around, the developers appear to have focused most of their efforts on beefing up the multiplayer and making it a faster, more engaging experience. What It Is The next iteration of Steven Spielberg’s Boom Blox…

World Of Warcraft Players Racking Up 16 Million Quests A Day

First, we want to pass on World of Warcraft lead game designer Jeffrey Kaplan’s apologies. He’s very sorry about Stranglethorn Vale’s 19-piece fetch fest Nesingwary’s Expedition. But it’s clear WoW players adore questing. How do we know? Kaplan says that the legions of players inhabiting Blizzard’s massively multiplayer online game are completing more than 16…

PSAs You Won’t Be Seeing in GI Joe Game

Corny early 80s public service announcements will be rearing their kitschy head in the modern GI Joe video game, but not the ones you really want to see. Speaking with some of the development team earlier this week they said that the already have four public service announcements built into the game which can be…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

GDC is still going strong. Expect our coverage to do the same, as we catch up on all our interviews, previews and session mining. But we’re making time to play some games this weekend too. Personally, I’ve got a copy of Rhythm Heaven burning a hole in my backpack, ready and waiting to find its…

Terminator Salvation Preview: Please Don’t Come Back

Terminator Salvation is sure to explode at the movie theater, finally offering moviegoers an in-depth look at the post-apocalyptic world we’ve all been hearing so much about. But what about the game? Can it shake its movie roots and deliver an experience that is as good as or better than the movie? What It Is…

The World of Fable II Wastes Less Than The World of Fable I

I wasn’t sure what to think of “The World of Fable II” when they played a blues song with the chorus “gonna give you a whippin'” before the panel started. What game had I been playing? I thought maybe I was in the wrong room, but then Fable II’s Technical Art Director, Ian Lovett, started…

Batman Takes On Arkham Asylum’s Challenge Rooms

Batman: Arkham Asylum game director Sefton Hill walks us through one of the game’s challenge rooms, demonstrating exactly what they mean by “invisible predator” gameplay. This is one of the games that really makes me regret not making it to the Game Developers Conference this year. I’m a relatively large fan of Batman, but I’ve…

Harmonix Lists Rejected Rock Band Names

Harmonix senior designer Dan Teasdale schooled GDC attendees today on the design philosophies that factored into the creation of Rock Band. That includes the critical “one question,” a rule that even affected the game’s name. The question was “Does it feel like an authentic band experience?” Design decisions that elicited a “Yes” to that all-important…

Steam Weekend Deal: Four Ubisoft Classics For $10

Steam concludes its week long sale salute to Ubisoft by offering four classic titles from the publisher for just under $10, including Beyond Good and Evil and the original Far Cry. The four Ubisoft titles – Beyond Good and Evil, Far Cry, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, and IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 – generally sell…

The Amazing Race To Become The Average Game

CBS and Ludia have teamed up for an exciting race through exotic locales, developing video games based off the Emmy Award-winning reality show The Amazing Race. Ludia, the company that brought us Hell’s Kitchen, American Idol, and Where’s Waldo video games in the past, is looking to add another fair to middling television show adaptation…

Codemasters’ Dirt 2 Teaser A Bit Dirtier Than Expected

I’m not quite sure what a nearly naked woman taking a shower and cooking pork parts has to do with anything, but I suddenly feel like a little off-road racing. It’s definitely a teaser trailer; I’m just not sure what it is trying to tease. Arguably it’s for Colin McRae: Dirt 2, the off-road and…

Batman Arkham Asylum Preview: The Challenge Modes

Batman video games have not, traditionally, enjoyed the same success as Batman movies. Despite the long line of titles based on the caped crusader dating back to the mid 80s, few video games have managed to deliver an enjoyable Batman experience. In Batman: Arkham Asylum gamers take control of a brutal Batman as he fights…

No DRM For The Sims 3

Rather than anger their fanbase with intrusive digital rights management technology, EA has opted to stick with tried and true Serial Code protection for The Sims 3. After getting into a heap of hot water over the DRM included in the hit life simulation Spore, it’s probably a wise decision for EA to back off…

Next Week In Rock Band: Journey Under The Sea With Pat Benatar

There’s something for everyone in next week’s additions to the Rock Band Music Store, with classics artists Journey, Pat Benatar, and…SpongeBob Squarepants taking center stage. No, it isn’t some quirky new band called SpongeBob Squarepants. It’s three tracks from the animated sensation that’s dumbed down a nation – “I Can’t Keep My Eyes Off Of…

Square Enix Eidos Takeover Is Go

Tomb Raider publisher Eidos will officially become part of Square Enix in May, as shareholders cast an overwhelming majority of votes in favor of the propsed takeover. Eidos held their shareholders meeting yesterday, during which a vote was held to determine if the Square Enix takeover bid would be approved, with 85% percent of the…

BioWare Tackles Elf Racism In Dragon Age: Origins

You can’t have an ginormous fantasy epic without at least three different races — elf, human, dwarf, etc. — and you can’t have elves and dwarfs without racism according to fantasy standard-setter J.R.R. Tolkien. In typical BioWare fashion of reinventing the plot wheel, Dragon Age: Origins aims to redefine the fantasy genre; and it’ll start…

Brutal Legend Art: Everything Is Metal — Even The Sky

Here are the ingredients to a successful GDC panel: visually entertaining slides, more than one trailer, halfway-decent public speaker, a game that’s actually coming out in the near future. And Tim Schafer. “The Brutal Art of Brutal Legend” nailed all five – or at least four if for some reason the game gets pushed back…

Slept Late, So Great

To: Crecente From: Bashcraft RE: Thank Goodness For Honest Neighbors Today I slept in a little late, and it was FREAKING AWESOME. One of the perks of this job is that the commute is from my bed to my laptop. Some days, it seems father than other days… What you missed last night Wii Fit…