Yesterday was a crappy day in the world of games news journalism – 1Up was sold by Ziff Davis Media to the Hearst Corporation and will be merged with UGO Entertainment.

This 1UP News Story painted a pretty positive situation whereby it seemed that ZD were relinquishing their hold on this valuable IP to a group where money and other resources would be more freely available.  This seemed a good thing as the News Story also states that 1Up IS the people:

“"The acquisition of 1UP, with its authentic voice, tenured editorial personalities and bustling user community…”

This is what drew me (as I’m sure many others would agree) to the site and to it’s written, audio and video content.

Unfortunately UGO entertainment didn’t…  Joystiq reported here about the number of staff members being laid off – including Shane, Philip, Nick and Anthony as well as many other.

UGO takes a different approach to it’s games “journalism” as Shawn Elliott twittered: http://tinyurl.com/7ngh6b

This is a big shame as all the quality Podcast and Videos show content as they were have now stopped and EGM is no more.

Hopefully UGO will let the people they have kept do what they did best and hopefully will do what they can to keep the spirit of this site going.

Some former members have created RebelFM (and a site called Eat-Sleep-Game) to aid the blank empty space left.  check out their first episode here.

It’s probably best to finish off with a link to someone who knows 1UP very well – check Jeff Green’s post on Greenspeak.

It’s a well known phenomenon (do, dooo, do, do) that Sports Stars (primarily North American sports) have a very bad year after they appear as box art for Video Games.  This has been given the name the ‘Madden Curse’ for the Madden Sports franchise – the Gamezone site also has a list of unfortunate stars here.

Well, I’m wondering if this predominantly NFL issue is jumping sports.  I bring to the table Top Spin 3 – the cover of which is below…

So you will notice there’s a few people on the front cover, the main one being Mr. Federer the number 1 ranked player in the world.

The game was released in June… he lost Wimbledon, the next open and major tennis tournament, his rank dropped from #1 in the world to #2 (still not career ending, but all the same)…

All of this may, of course, be a total coincidence, but you can’t help wondering why bad things happen when sports stars appear on game covers…

There's a couple of big events going on at the moment which bring two interests of mine together.

The first one is PDC or The Professional Developers Conference - basically lots of top notch developers get together and talk shop.  Usually there's loads of good announcements come out of the event - for example Microsoft Azure - the Cloud Computing Operating System (looks like the marketing guys have come up with a funky name at long last!!!).  For the Twitterites amongst us there is a twitter feed for the event as well: @PDC2008.  Keep on the look out for other tidbits as well from the event - even maybe some SharePoint news!

The second event is the London Games Festival.  This is a yearly event where loads of gaming people get together and have a laugh and see all the new funky stuff that's coming out.
There's lots going on from now all the way through to November 7th including exhibitions, showing off new games, competitions as well as the Eurogamer Expo which is starting today and running through until tomorrow.

Following on from a previous post we actually have the details now of the new 360 dash update that’s coming this fall – full details of update can be found on Major Nelson’s site http://majornelson.com/archive/2008/07/14/some-of-the-features-in-the-new-xbox-experience-8-person-chat-vga-plus-more.aspx but more specifically the E3 press conference showed us the new Dashboard interface.  See below to see the dash (sans wallpaper backdrop) in action:

So what are your thoughts of this in relation to the article in my previous post?  Some things to consider…

• Interesting that no advertising is seen in a big way on the dash – this could be something to look out for.
• Very much more stylised considering the old dash.
• Certainly a change for the better.
• One of the major complaints was navigating the volume of content that could be on a console – the live arcade being the prime example – doesn’t seem to be addressed in these videos.  It will be interesting to see what happens with this.

Still, looking forward to this and seeing what can do…

This is a very interesting article on some work an independent podcaster/gamer did on the  dash.  You could argue to the cows come home about the design and if it’s good or not.  The really interesting thing is how much of the screen estate is taken up by each component.  The scary thing is the 36.5% unused space on the dash – there’s a lot of of potential there. 

Not too surprised at the advertising space – this is becoming big business for a lot of people, not only Microsoft.  I wouldn’t be too surprised if this was increased…

Gaming Culture: Dream 360 Dashboard

I know, where I have been for the past half year or so, but I'm catching up on my gaming.  Just seen the trailer for the new Star Wars game, the force unleashed and it looks rocking!  There's loads of information up on The Force Unleashed Website including some documentaries and production libraries.  Anyway glad it's coming out on 360 and will now start the long wait!

Here's the trailer... prepare to geek out star wars fans!

I usually wouldn't post something like this, but seeing I mentioned Sensible World of Soccer this morning, I thought I'd flag this up...

Unfortunately its been pulled from the Live Servers due to a bug!! Here's the post from eurogamer: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=177987

Anyway, here's hoping this get sorted soon and the new version will be back out...

We all knew gaming to film cross-overs were never a good thing, and even after all the films, someone still tried it with Hitman.  It seems though that Games can make good Ads.  The juggernaut that is World of Warcraft has got some great ads out for it's game (like it needs anymore publicity).  Also if you thought that they weren't able afford something like this, think about the 30 quid that over a million players pay...

Anyway, here's the ads.  The first Mr T... after the Snickers ad, it looks like he's making a comeback!

Next, the legend that is... Mr Shatner...

Next and the newest, Verne Troyer, aka Mini Me from Austin Powers:

In the most shocking news of this century Duke Nukem will be getting a teaser trailer, as reported by EuroGamer and a number of other sites.

You may remember that first Duke Nukem was released just after the wheel was crafted and just before the invention of the mobile phone, soon after, Forever was 'promised' announced... cue three generations of console, a number of major FPS franchises released  (Call of Duty, Medal of Honour, Halo, Hidden and Dangerous, Ghost Recon and Barbie's Horse Adventures... no wait not that last one), and enough time for EA to flog Need for Speed to death, resurrect it using evil demonic powers, and then kill it again (pro anyone?  Nah thought not, we'll just wait for Paradise).

Also note in the article it's a teaser trailer... eh?  You would have thought that they could have at least got a full length trailer out by now!  Also bearing in mind that in the average timescales of gamer-dom, a tease is usually 1-2 years away from the actual release of the game.  This means we should expect the finished article in about... 10 years time... or when hell freezes over... and the satanic, demon possessed soul of need for speed bobbles up from its depths...

In other news today a herd of pigs were seen flying the white cliffs of Dover on a migration path for Africa, the Gaming industry admits the Daiktana is actually pretty good and the UK will have a white Christmas... sigh

From a gaming/movie/general mainstream culture point of view us Brits and the rest of Europe usually end up with a bum deal.  You can think back to all the cool stuff that other parts of the world get first and know that's it's gonna be a good few months before we get all the cool stuff too! 

Being the ever optimist, I feel it's my duty to look on the bright side of life generally, and even though I too would love to be playing Rock Band right now, I know that there is some comfort to be found (aside from the obvious reasons of a) it's expensive... b) it takes up most of the room in your garage c) my wife wouldn't divorce me as you can't divorce dead people...)

So why's second place so good.

1. We don't get the broken hardware
   Example: Into the dock steps the aforementioned Rock Band.  In the weeks after it's release, the guitars broke.  Yup life sucks...
   Reason: By the time it reaches our green and pleasant land the issue should be resolve... :-)
2. We don't have to wait so long for extra content
   Example: A game comes out in the US... two months later it comes out in the UK, one month after this, downloadable content
   Reason: basic maths... US have to wait three months, everyone else one month...
3. We're not third
   Example: Hey Australia, is ps2 is classed this generation

Anyway just a thought...

In game advertising has been increasing in frequency amongst our beloved games industry - just have a look at Kotaku's site (http://kotaku.com/search/ingame+advertising/byrelevance/) to see the number of articles.

The level of this has caused concern about how far it would go and if it would impact the games playing experience. 

At the moment I'm not fussed as long as it makes sense and enhances the games - e.g. Samsung promoting the latest in HD screens in The Elder Scrolls iv: Oblivion may be a bit off putting!

The most interesting thing that I have seen is with the release of

This game uses technology of Massive Incorporated ("Massive") that enables in-game advertising. Massive may collect your Internet protocol address and other anonymous information for the purposes of transmitting and measuring in-game advertising. Massive does not store or use this information for discovering your identity. Please see Massive's privacy policy: http://www.massiveincorporated.com/site_network/privacy.htm. Trademarks and copyrighted material in in-game advertising are the property of the respective owners.

Hmmm, targeted advertising... I don't think this will be much of an issue as I assume that this will be focused on the boards that surround the pitch - still realistic, but what info are the capturing?  Are we going to have a half time poll as to whether 'Evian is better than Vittel' or 'Sainsbury shortbread biscuits, in your opinion, spit all over Tesco's?', only time will tell...

Regardless the game will be downloaded, joy will be had, and the continue longing of Jools, Stoo et al will continue...

It's always good to see British Cinema doing well!  In this case it's the brilliant, nay astounding work that is Hot Fuzz.  This was one of the cells from a great online comic (Subscribe to this!!! You won't regret it!) called CTRL+ALT+DEL (or CAD) and is games related.  This was from a Mass Effect themed strip.  Anyway... here's the quality cell... 

It makes you think what other British Film options could be available... there's

• Bumbling, but lovable wally ala any Hugh Grant character
• Bumbling, but with an inner strength, ala any Colin Firth character
• Bumbling, and actually a total plonker, ala Mr Bean
• East end gangster ala anyone from Lock Stock

With Microsoft getting involved with Facebook - and Social networking within the Enterprise environment with SharePoint, it was only a matter of time that this was looked at in other areas of this business to add this medium.  Step up the Xbox live team and the Fall update that hit consoles worldwide today. 

Xbox live has already dipped quite a few toes and fingers into the social networking space, defining this console generation's online look and feel.  With the Dash update we've got ankles and wrists firmly dipped in with the ability to start viewing your friends list and getting that social vibe really working.

There are a couple of things to note here.  First of all ensure that you're friends of friends settings are up to date.  Go to: www.xbox.com/en-us/fof (you may not need the en-us bit if your in the US, all other regions should add that to ensure that you get to the right page!).

I'm hoping the spring update will provide the ability to add in clans and communities proper - this would make the platform a real winner over the Wii and the Ps3.  In the meantime, the FoF approach can be used for a clan type system by doing the following:

• Create a Silver Account.
• Give it your clan name.
• Use the FoF features to add everyone in
• check this before gaming to find out which Clan members are online.

Personally and realistically I feel this shouldn't be something too difficult to add in.  With a few more pieces of meta-data added to a users account, it should be easy to provide the ability to say what clans a person is in.  There is already an invite mechanism to join games from the Dashboard, so this can be extended both to invite people to join clans, but also launch games for a clan in one go.

Here's hoping...

For info about the full Dash update features, including, DivX support, a generally quicker dash and xbox originals downloading service, visit: december-2007-system-update.aspx - it's quite a long list, so settle down with a cuppa for this...

A new games reviewer has burst onto the scene this year, taking the Interwebs by storm.  His name is Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw and he has a very distinct way of reviewing games.

He works for Escapists Magazine and has a column called Zero Punctuation.  Check out the site at: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation.  He was an Englishman who moved across to Australia and has been involved with developing games as well as reviewing them.

Being English he's blunt, sarcastic, unrelenting and very, very funny.  Go back through the archives, have a laugh, whatever you do, just don't play with the sound up too loud in public...

As an aside, a couple of weeks ago Mr Croshaw was invited to Valve all the way in Seattle, U S of A as they were so impressed with his review of the Orange Box.  The web ground to a halt, babies cried, crops failed... step into the breach an unknown person, who, it must be said filled the gap admirably.  Anyway you can see that one below:

I saw this appear on the Channel 10 (http://on10.net/feeds/rss/) RSS feed.

We've had the seats that rumble... the controllers that rumble, we've even look silly with those video glasses, all in the name of gaming.  Now, we can actually experience getting shot or feeling the impact of G-force in games.

TN Games (TN Games...3rd Space Gaming Vest ) have developed a specialised vest to do just this.

Now I'm all for realism in games, I like playing games, whether this is a step too far... I don't know... all I do know if that I'm glad this wasn't around when doom gave us the BFG9000 and will make me think twice when I'm thinking of doing a suicide run against a wraith in Halo 3!

Happy gaming...

I got the demo of GH3 downloaded from XBox Live the other day, and have to say, it's taken over from Halo 3 quite a bit!  OK so I don't have a guitar shaped controller, but it's been a great laugh - also I'm hoping to win Becky over with the 80's cheese!

To be honest I don't have a preference as to which (except the obvious ones!) buts here's some thoughts about what needs to be placed in a game very much like this.

Air Tonight - Phil Collins - Rock band - oh for the chance to do that drum sequence.

I believe in a thing called Love - The Darkness - not fussed which although hearing someone trying to sing like the front man...  - just for the chance to loose it in a song - probably best on legend or whatever the hard level is!

The Devil went down to Georgia - ? - not fussed which - seeing someone rock out the violin/guitar sections of this would rock!

Evanescence - Tourniquet - Guitar Hero - a very good driving rock tune, and the lead singer is very good!

Bryan Adams - Kids Wanna Rock - Guitar Hero - always happy to rock out to a bit of Mr Adams - Canada's greatest import (forget Miss Dion!!)

I'm sure that there will be plenty more, but my mind's blanking out at the mo!

(NOTE: any time the word Rock appears, it is a legal requirement that it is stated in an OTT, couple-of-Octaves-lower, with-slight-gravel-effect, cheesy-DJ, kinda way.  That includes this sentence so I will give you a moment to re-read...

...

...

For reference check out Bill Bailey in his Bewilderness DVD...

It will be placed in italics to ensure that the word is easily viewable)

I didn't board the Rock train that was Guitar Hero 2, so I am coming late, as it were, to the party.  Thankfully the wonderful ability to let my XBox 360 to download demos while the world sleeps came to my Rock salvation!

Demo downloaded, let the Rock Reign!!

Slight problem though, you may think, the imbecile's late, he hasn't forked over his hard-earned cash for his guitar shaped controller... how can Rock Reign, how can Legends of Rock be demoed?

Ah ha, there is an answer and as a way of a public service announcement for those few who want to try this out it can be done with your trusty 360 controller... here's the button map:

Green: left trigger

Red: left [shoulder] button

Yellow: right [shoulder] button

Blue: right trigger

Orange: 'A' button

'Waa' effect (hey don't mock me man!  I never said I could play the guitar!!): either analog thumbstick

Activate Star Power: the 'D' Pad.

Now granted you wont get the full effect, I anyone who is really keen after the demo I would recommend getting the controller but it will certainly give you a flavour of the game and of course get you up to speed on five of the songs.

The demo is great.  It's actually pushed Halo 3 out of the way at the moment, which is quite scary.  It certainly helped me get my Rock on!!

A couple of side effects have been noticed.  One  is walking around looking like a total wally whilst you practice your finger movements, the other is annoying your wife as she has to hear the same song, over and over, and over...

Anyway... enjoy!

For us European Gamers we end up on the wrong end of special events, competitions or tech company's screwing us over. 

Well, get ready for next weekend as Microsoft are giving the community over the pond a ray of live.  Xtival (well there had to be an 'X' in there somewhere!) '07 will be hitting shores on the 23rd and running across the weekend.  The summer festival's may be over, but there's still fun to have...

There's loads of stuff happening from competitions to gaming events and general 360 wonderfulness!

The biggest news... full GOLD membership for the whole weekend... for FREE!  Yup, so if you've got a silver membership and been wanting to jump in on Halo 3 online or or if you've been waiting to pick up your Xbox 360 system, then now's your chance to get the full on experience! 

Here's the link to the Xtival site: http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/xtival07/default.htm.  It contains game schedules as well as other info as well.

If you're not sure which system to go for - here's a comparison of each SKU: http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/hardware/compare101.htm

This time it's more of a positive thing.  Halo 3 has now been out for a few weeks and it's rocking - Not only does this one bring the the series up to date with shiny graphics and brilliant sound (check out the Major Nelson Podcast #246 for an interview with the Audio Director from Bungie) but it also clears up some of the story lines and game decisions (possibly the disappointments?) of #2.  Here's a few thoughts:

Now defending earth - I know for one the early Earth levels on Halo 2 were great and really enjoyed them.  A number of others have voice the opinion that after the initial fun of these they reverted back to the original Halo-scapes - this is now fully rectified with this version with a lot of the levels being based on Earth (I'm still only a little way in, so wont be too surprised to find an outer world experience happening at some point) - also the early levels seem to be going for the jungle theme that a lot of other games are striving/en for as well - Far Cry, Crysis, etc.

Understand now why you played the Arbiter in H2 - Even though these weren't my favourite levels because you "seemed to be playing the bad guy" the story "arc" (geddit - Halo, Arc, sometimes I crack myself up!!) has come round enough to understand how this fits together - I still find myself shooting him in the back... by mistake I hasten to add!

Stats and Bungie site tie-ins - Bungie's done more than just a game, they've placed a structure and system to help the community meet and share (I would say grow but I think growth would have happened without this!) - they've got service records, picture uploads, basic mapping tools (from what I've seen on this feature Valve and Quake modders don't need to start worrying yet!) and even though this probably wont appear in most game reviews or contribute to the score, I think there needs to be some recognition here.  I know that there has been problems with this (I suffered from this as well).  Starting my campaign last Thursday I when to the site to find those details were not up and my profile didn't exist - a bit of a bummer.  From what I can gather it's totally down to the amount of data that's been uploaded and moved around.  My profile has been created now and it has my terrible matches from last night (I promise you the ones before this were better!!).

Anyway enjoy and let me know what you think...