Independent Game Showcase to Feature The Latest in Independent Games at GameCity

IndieCade announced today that it is joining forces with GameCity England to highlight some of the best and brightest works of the international independent game developer community at the festival in Nottingham England on October 24th thru the 28th. The event marks IndieCade’s inaugural European event and follows the well received IndieCade showcase at the E3 Business and Media Summit in Los Angeles this past July.

The festival is a street level event celebrating innovation in video games and interactive entertainment. IndieCade will showcase 19 games, developed by individuals, small studios, and students, which exemplify the leading edge of the international independent game development with an eye highlighting work from the United Kingdom. “The game industry has been described as the leading entertainment medium of the 21st century,” said Stephanie Barish, founder and managing director of IndieCade, “the Indie games represent the bustling creative fringes of that medium.”

GameCity organizers invited IndieCade to show at this open to the public street festival more of what IndieCade unveiled to industry insiders at the exclusive E3 Business and Media Summit this past July. GameCity follows on the heels of an IndieCade Games Showcase and panel in Tokyo last month and at E for All in Los Angeles earlier this month.

Independent gamemakers Mare Sheppard and Raigan Burns of Metanet Software whose game N is part of the showcase put it succinctly, “To us, ‘independent’ signifies an ideology, a belief in the value of a viable alternative to the mainstream.”

Curators for the showcase included Barish, Celia Pearce, Indiecade Festival Chair and Sam Roberts, the director of the Slamdance Guerilla Game Competition. “Independent game developers comprise a diverse and international community,” said Roberts, “It is particularly gratifying that this is IndieCade’s first showcase outside the U.S. and we look forward to supporting the independent game community wherever it may be.”

What: IndieCade Showcase @ GameCity

Where: Broadway

When: Thursday, Oct 24 – Sunday, Oct 28

Attendees: Open to the public

About IndieCade

IndieCade supports independent game development and sponsors a series of international showcases and festivals for the future of independent games. It encourages, publicizes, and cultivates innovation and artistry in interactive media, helping to create a public perception of games as rich, diverse, artistic, and culturally significant. IndieCade’s events and related production and publication programs are designed to bring visibility to and facilitate the production of new works within the emerging independent game movement. Like the independent videogame developer community itself, IndieCade’s focus is global and includes producers in Asia, Europe, Australia, and anywhere else independent games are made and played. IndieCade was formed by Creative Media Collaborative, an alliance of industry producers and leaders founded in 2005. For more information please visit http://indiecade.com/.

Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock 'Legendary Status'

Delivering the most authentic rock experience to date, Activision, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock will feature some of the world's most influential musical instrument and equipment manufacturers including Gibson, Guitar Center Audio-Technica, Crate, Ernie Ball, Krank, Line 6, Mackie and Zildjian. Alternative Press, Decibel, Guitar Player, Kerrang and Paste magazines also make appearances giving Guitar Hero® legends the chance to see their names in the headlines.

In addition to partnering with some of the most prominent names in music, Activision has forged key strategic alliances with companies such as Pontiac and Axe whose product appears in the game.

"By forging exclusive relationships with key companies in the music and consumer packaged goods industries we are able to bring an even greater depth of realism to Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock," said Dave Anderson, sr. director of business development for Activision. "From venues like Pontiac Garage, to customized guitars from Axe, the game delivers the ultimate rock and roll experience."

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock will include explosive new content and features including a multiplayer action-inspired battle mode, grueling boss battles, a host of exclusive unlockable content and visually stunning rock venues. Expanded online multiplayer game modes will also allow axe-shredders worldwide to compete head-to-head for true legendary rock status. For the first time ever, Guitar Hero fans will also be able to thrash and burn with new wireless guitar controllers available for each platform. The game will feature a star-studded soundtrack including master tracks by such legendary artists as Aerosmith, Guns N' Roses, The Rolling Stones, Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam as well as original songs by guitar icons Slash and Tom Morello. While continuing to retain all the key features from their prior legendary performances, fresh downloadable content will be offered on multiple platforms, and players can now shred to a killer set list from many of the most popular rock songs ever recorded.

For the first time ever, Guitar Hero fans will also be able to thrash and burn with new wireless guitar controllers available for each platform, including exclusive Gibson Guitar's Les Paul model for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Wii™ home video game system from Nintendo, and PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system. PlayStation®2 gamers will also get to shred on a new exclusive wireless guitar controller shape, Gibson's Kramer guitar, popularized by hard rockers and known for its body design, pickups, electronics and construction for furious finger fretting.
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, published by RedOctane® and developed by Neversoft, is rated Teen by the ESRB and will be available October 28th, 2007 on the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Wii™ video game system from Nintendo, and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system and PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system. For more information about the Guitar Hero franchise, please visit the dedicated community site: www.guitarhero.com.

Wii are the champions - at BAFTA

Nintendo's Wii Sports taking 6 awards from a total of 15.

Sony's PlayStation 3 fails to gain any awards

The game was actually nominated for 7 awards, but lost the Best Game category to 2K’s BioShock.

Some of the games nominated are yet to be released, though none of them won awards.

Action and Adventure
Crackdown (Realtime Worlds, Microsoft, X360)

Artistic Achievement
Okami (Clover Studio, Capcom, PS2)

Best Game
BioShock (2K Boston/2K Australia, 2K Games, PC, X360)

Casual
Wii Sports (Nintendo, Wii)

Gameplay
Wii Sports (Nintendo, Wii)

Innovation
Wii Sports (Nintendo, Wii)

Multiplayer
Wii Sports (Nintendo, Wii)

Original Score
Okami (Clover Studio, Capcom, PS2)

Sports
Wii Sports (Nintendo, Wii)

Strategy and Simulation
Wii Sports (Nintendo, Wii)

Story and Character
God of War II (SCE Santa Monica, SCE, PS2)

Technical Achievement
God of War II (SCE Santa Monica, SCE, PS2)

Use of Audio
Crackdown (Realtime Worlds, Microsoft, X360)

BAFTA Ones to Watch Award (Independent Dev)
Ragnarawk (Voodoo Boogy)

The PC World Gamers Award (Public Voting Online)
Football Manager 2007 (Sports Interactive, Sega, PC)

World in Conflict Update

This is the second update for World in Conflict, primarily adding new functionality for server administration, updates to Massgate and fixes to various performance and stability issues.

New features:

Several new Admin Commands have been added to give Server Admins increased control. For details on each of the individual commands and how to use them, please visit our forums at www.massgate.net.

A time delay of 20 seconds has been added between Assault rounds.

Clan officers can now invite other players to the clan, as well as kick Grunts.

A successful map vote will now change the map instantly.

Two new permanent chat rooms have been added to Massgate for clan war and few player mode matters.

Players should now get an in-game notification when receiving an "Instant Message".

Units and balancing:

The cost for the "Heavy Air Support" Tactical Aid has been reduced from 30/50/70 to 25/45/65.

Score from repairing your own non-repair units has been reduced by 50%.

Bug fixes:

Fixed a crash that could occur directly after map load (on systems not supporting Pixel Shader 2.0). Was released on the forums as a Hotfix.

Fixed crashes that could occur on localized versions (languages other than English).

"Solo VOIP" (to specific player(s)) checkbox now stays enabled when exiting score sheet.

Players who experience occasional freezes/lockups can now try to append "-stabilityfactor 10" (without the quotes) to the target path of the WIC shortcut. It can also be toggled in the console (in-game) by typing StabilityFactor 10. The number 10 can be decreased or increased if users want to experiment (StabilityFactor 0 turns the feature off).

The game now defaults to full Field-of-View for Widescreen resolutions (such as 16:9). The widescreen Field-of-View from Update 1 can be used by appending "-widescreenscale" (without the quotes) to the target path of the WIC shortcut.

Entering the Mega-Map no longer resets changes to the camera settings.
Better feedback to players that are moved to the other team as a result of "Team Auto-Balance".

Players should no longer experience disconnects when selecting a role that has already reached its cap.

Players should no longer experience disconnects when buying more units than they had credits for. This could occur if a player “resupplied” and then ordered more troops before the server had responded.

Players should no longer experience disconnects when ordering more Tactical Aid weapons than they could afford. This could happen if a player ordered two different Tactical Aid weapons before the server responded.

Added Dynamic Lag Margin, activated by appending "-lagmargin" (without the quotes) to the target path of the WIC shortcut. This increases the lag margin to a maximum of 0.45 at packet loss / variation in ping.

* Updated the NATO heavy helicopter texture.

Dundee-based games designers sweep BAFTAs

Scottish computer games designers have picked up three BAFTAs at a prestigious awards ceremony in London.

A team of students from the University of Abertay Dundee has won the very first BAFTA “Ones to Watch” Award.

Team ‘Voodoo Boogy’, comprising five students on Abertay’s computer games technology and computer arts degree courses, picked up their award at the British Academy Video Games Awards in London last night (23 October).

And in a remarkable night for Scottish success, Dundee-based computer games firm Realtime Worlds also picked up the BAFTA awards for Best Use of Audio and Best Action and Adventure for their Xbox 360 title ‘Crackdown’.

Voodoo Boogy are one of the three winning teams from Abertay’s Dare to be Digital competition this year. The three teams were the sole nominees for the BAFTA ‘Ones to Watch’ award, instituted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in association with Dare to be Digital.

The team members of Voodoo Boogy are: Malcolm Brown and Robert Clarke, graduates in computer games technology; Peter Carr and Finlay Sutton, graduates in computer arts; and Lynne Robertson, currently in her fourth year of computer arts.

Voodoo Boogy were competing for last night’s prize against a team from Edinburgh University and another composed of Chinese students.

Realtime Worlds was founded in 2002 by David Jones, who is a graduate of Abertay and now a Visiting Professor of Games Design and Technology. The company employs about 170 people in Dundee, plus a further 30 in Korea and Colorado. David Jones and other team members have created some of the world's best selling video games, including the global hit franchises 'Lemmings' and 'Grand Theft Auto'.

The international computer games industry is predicted to be worth around $42-44 billion annually by 2010.

Teams website

The SIMS On Stage - Karaoke Online

New SIMS online community launched by EA

The Sims on Stage is like the mutant offspring of The Sims, YouTube and Myspace. Billed as a creative community, the site allows people to create avatars through which to sing and record their favorite songs, write and perform comedy sketches, poetry, and stories. They can even create movie montage by mixing their own performances with movie clips from The Sims 2 game.

Watch and Listen: Discover entertaining content by talented performers and writers.

Write or Record a Poetry, Comic Sketch or Routine.

Rate and Review: Vote and give feedback on written creations and performances by others in the community.

Share: Embed your own and other member’s creations and performances to a MySpace page, blog, or other sites, share them via email.

Create a Movie Mashup

All sponsored by Ford

Hellgate video game explain in game adware

EULA (End-User License Agreement) Explained

We just made some big announcements about Hellgate: London, and it’s been great to see all of the excited comments regarding what we have in store for our players on day one and onward. On the flip side, we’ve also heard grumblings about the EULA that went out with our DX9 single-player demo.

We want to make something very clear. We are in no way scanning your computers for your personal information or taking any personal information without your knowledge. The only time that Flagship or Ping0 would collect your personally identifiable information is when you actually decide to give it to us. Examples are when you create an account for Hellgate: London online or when you provide us your personal information when you enter a contest.

The language in the portion of the EULA that has been cited is actually fairly standardized language that is used in the vast majority of EULAs for recent on-line software. It was unfortunately also somewhat broad in scope and potentially ambiguous in nature in an attempt to keep the legalese at a minimum.

This catch-all statement was included so that we have the ability to determine if someone is using hacks, unauthorized mods or other abusive applications while playing the game which spoils the gameplay for everyone else. We also use this catch-all to protect other parties offering technical support, such as our online provider, Ping0.

This is a completely legitimate function and other leaders in the MMO space do it in an effort to stop hackers and provide better technical support. In order to stop hacks and cheats, as well as attempts at outright fraud, we may need the ability to scan our player’s computers for applications running at the same time as our game.

This paragraph was designed to be able to allow for such functionality. It is also important to point out that EA does not determine what we do in regards to online and offline for our game security.

Violent video game maker forgiven

BBC Website
Church leaders at Manchester Cathedral have "forgiven" Sony for not asking permission to use images of the building in a violent video game.
Sony's PlayStation game Resistance: Fall of Man, uses the historic church as a backdrop to a violent gunfight.

The game was nominated, but failed, to win an award at the British Academy Video Games Awards on Tuesday evening.

The company has apologised for using the graphics, but said it would not be withdrawing the game from sale.

The awards, organised by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), took place at Battersea Evolution, in Battersea Park, London.

More from the BBC

Pokemon for sore throats...

Even when you've got a sore throat, Pokémon is there for you. Yes, this is Pocket Monsters nodo ame (throat lozenges), which comes in two fruity flavors: Orange and grape. They even have Vitamin C in them. How about that? And if this wasn't enough (it really isn't), there's Diamond & Pearl SPACE JUICE. Well, it's not really space juice. Pokémon space juice would be absurd. Rather, it's mixed fruit juice in an astronaut-style squeezy pouch that's often used for energy jelly drinks in Japan.

Source: Kotaku

Okami for Nintendo's Wii

I thought the PlayStation 2 epic "Okami" was the best game of 2006 - but most of you were too busy chain-sawing aliens in "Gears of War" to take a look at this masterpiece from Capcom's now-disbanded Clover Studio. Well, here's your second chance: Capcom is digging up this buried treasure and will be republishing it for the Wii.

"Okami" always felt like a Wii game anyway. Throughout the game you're required to use a "Celestial Brush" to draw spells or solve puzzles. On the PS2, you had to hold an awkward combination of buttons to use the brush; the Wii, presumably, will let you draw by simply pointing the remote at the screen.

Since the Clover team has separated, the Wii translation is being handled by Ready at Dawn, the studio behind the PSP game "Daxter." I almost wish I hadn't played "Okami" already, because it's sure to be one of the best Wii games of 2008.