Super Mario Galaxy backup edition

Link to Game video
We already heard about ripped copies of Super Mario Galaxy making it onto the 'net, and now some silly person is showing off his Super Mario Galaxy backup running on his consumer Wii.

The video maker goes out of his way to show that this copied disc is actually playing, even stopping to eject the copy to show its effect on the game. We get it - it works!

He's still not as cool as the GameStop employees that we've talked to who just took the kiosk copy of the game home and played it to their hearts' content. Even cooler are the people who will actually wait a few weeks to purchase a real copy to add this fine game to their collections.

And guess what, backup guy -- I saw your Mii, and I'm

Link to Game video

Simpsons Game Producer Takes Shots at Rockstar

Rockstar was pretty ticked to discover that The Simpsons Game parodies Grand Theft Auto; as EA's Matt Selman puts it, when Rockstar saw the Grand Theft Scratchy poster, they "spazzed out like little babies."

In an episode of Game Head, Selman explains that the idea that it was pretty absurd for Rockstar to worry that anyone would actually confuse the fake game of Grand Theft Scratchy with the real Grand Theft Auto:

We couldn't get our game out in time, so we're afraid that the gamers — who are not morons — are going to get confused by an Itchy and Scratchy poster of Grand Theft Scratchy - they're going to think that's the same thing as Grand Theft Auto.

Selman is actually a big fan of the GTA series, saying "I'll be the first person in line to play Grand Theft Auto 4...in five years when it comes out." Oh, burn.

Source: WIRED Blog

The Simpsons games review

The Simpsons Game: Strategy/ action game (Electronic Arts for Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and PS2. $39.99 to $59.99. ESRB Rating: Teen.)

Are you ready for the Super Happy Fun Fun?
We're referring, of course, to the 22nd episode of the eighth season of "The Simpsons," where Homer discovers that he looks exactly like the mascot for the Japanese-made dishwasher detergent Mr. Sparkle. That and dozens of other obscure references to the television show are buried in the Simpsons Game, which features an unusual amount of cooperation between the creative heads of "The Simpsons" and the publishers of the video game at Electronic Arts.

If only the game play matched the wittiness of the writing, this might be a classic. Yet, even with its simple action sequences and a few frustrating game play mechanics, the latest game based on "The Simpsons" is an unexpected treat for fans of the show, filled with inside jokes from the "Simpsons" universe and some entertaining satire of the video game industry.

Previous "Simpsons" titles, like most video games based on licensed characters from television and movies, were stunningly unimaginative. The Simpsons Hit & Run on PlayStation 2, for example, was just a simplified version of the arcade classic Crazy Taxi, with maybe a couple hours of work from each of the show's voice actors. It was the type of consumer rip-off (usually orchestrated by Krusty) that the writers from "The Simpsons" might make fun of in an episode of the show.

Somewhere in the past few years, the creative force behind the franchise got tired of simply cashing royalty checks for their video games and tried to make a good one. The Simpsons Game gets quality contributions from several of the show's better writers. And while many TV and movie actors deliver vocal performances like someone has a gun to their head, Harry Shearer, Hank Azaria and the other "Simpsons" regulars clearly worked hard to make the game sound like the TV show.

The plot combines familiar "Simpsons" situations, including clips directly from the show, with new material - much of it skewering video games. The Comic Book Guy, for example, points out each of the game's cliches. ("The double jump. How original.") References to the Grand Theft Auto spoof Grand Theft Scratchy are also still in the game, even though Rockstar reportedly influenced Electronic Arts to change the name in a promotional video to Mob Rules.

The satirical elements are the best part of the Simpsons Game, which succeeds on the strength of its parody skills. On the Xbox 360, at least, the graphics in the game are just as good as the TV show's animation, creating a seamless experience. Just walking around Springfield and bumping into other characters will yield a few lines ("Mmmm. Calories," Homer says, as he enters the Land of Chocolate) that are bound to make you smile.
The action in the game is incredibly simple, with each character having the ability to run, jump and execute a couple of special moves. Bart has a slingshot and Marge operates a megaphone that has offensive capabilities. Homer has burping power, the ability to turn into a Metroid Prime-style ball weapon and a couple of other skills that reveal themselves later in the game.
It's a strange format, because the simple puzzles and repetitive tasks seem designed for the 8-year-old Sonic the Hedgehog crowd, and yet the Simpsons Game more than earns its Teen rating with some off-color jokes and penchant for funny, over-the-top violence.

The game is also restricted by nausea-inducing camera controls, which constantly change but are rarely very effective. For such a simple game - the instruction booklet for the Simpsons Game is six pages - making the characters move the way you want them to is much too complicated.

Still, that's a relatively tiny problem in a game that more than makes up for its shortcomings with "Simpsons"-style mob violence, Homer-related gluttony, Krusty the Clown-themed product safety violations and other assorted tasteless brilliance. Let the Super Happy Fun Fun begin.

Source: SFGate

Orange box deactivations

Developer defends right to territorial control

Consumers based in the US who bought Orange Box product keys from an online retailer in Thailand are having their copies of the game deactivated.

Orange Box developer and Steam operator Valve issued a statement late last week defending its behaviour. "Valve uses Steam for territory control to make sure products authorised for use in certain territories are not being distributed and used outside of those territories," the company said.

"In this case, a Thai website was selling retail box product keys for Thailand to people outside of Thailand. Since those keys are only for use in Thailand, people who purchased product keys from the Thai website are not able to use those product keys in other territories."

Consumers who have since bought a new domestic copy of the game but could still not get the new Orange Box to work, have been told to contact Steam directly.

"Some of these users have subsequently purchased a legal copy after realising the issue and were having difficulty removing the illegitimate keys from their Steam accounts," the statement continues. "Anyone having this problem should contact Steam Support to have the Thai key removed from their Steam account."

Hellgate: London video game Music Interview

Flagship Studios' Hellgate: London takes place in the near future, only a few decades from now. The famed city lies in ruins, desolated by demons that simply and almost effortlessly swept aside humanity's armies. Even the most highly advanced, top secret biological and nuclear weapons have failed to slow their rampage. Reeling from the ferocious assault, the survivors have taken refuge in what's left of the Underground. Their last hope lies with three mysterious factions.

Templars have trained diligently in martial disciplines and holy magic to prepare for the conflict their predecessors foresaw centuries ago. Cabalists study the dark arts and combine them with knowledge from the peripheries of science, seeking to use the fiends' own powers against them. Hunters are former military operatives with access to ranged arms that very few others even knew existed, except perhaps in theory.

Sascha Dikiciyan, Cris Velasco

The action RPG will ship later this week, so we're only days away from taking on these diverse roles, heading out to stalk the invaders, and battling desperately to save our race from extinction. As we do so, we can look to the game's music for some additional inspiration. It's the result of a collaboration involving two accomplished composers, the team of Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan.

Their combined credits in the industry, both together and individually, are numerous and impressive, so when we learned they had been given this assignment, our expectations were naturally high. With their latest title about to be unveiled, it seemed a very fitting time to examine their contribution. Fortunately for us, the pair proved receptive when we came along with our usual plethora of questions. The result was this interesting and highly informative interview.

This game was just a perfect match for us. I really saw the opportunity to create something non-typical for Hellgate. Flagship gave us all the freedom we needed.

More from: RPG Vault

Nvidia Unleashes GeForce 8800 GT

Gamers wanting an uber cool gaming experience this festive season have now got an affordable option.

Nvidia has launched the GeForce 8800 GT, the latest addition to its GeForce 8 Series of graphics processing units (GPUs)

GeForce 8800 GT offers a hyper-reactive, intensely robust gaming experience for the latest, next generation DirectX 10 games, such as Crysis, Hellgate: London, and Gears of War, as well as full support for current DirectX 9 games, according to Nvidia.

When the GeForce 8 Series was first introduced, gamers demanded a product with 64 stream processors and 256-bit memory interface to deliver more performance at an affordable price.

Nvidia has now responded to the demand with its GeForce 8800 GT featuring 112 stream processors, fast 256-bit memory interface, and second-generation PureVideo HD technology.

In addition to 112 stream processors, each individually clocked at 1.5GHz, plus a 256-bit memory interface running at 900MHz, the GeForce 8800 GT is designed for the new PCI Express 2.0 bus standard, and is backwards-compatible with the original PCI Express standard.

Nvidia claims the GeForce 8800GT combines the best in gaming with the best in HD. It features a second-generation video processing engine to deliver high-quality playback of HD DVD and Blu-ray movies on PCs.

According to the company, the new programmable video processing engine takes on all of the high definition H.264 video decoding, freeing the CPU to perform other tasks, as also reduces power consumption, heat, and noise.

The Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT is available for Rs 14,900 plus taxes.

Crytek's Crysis Goes Gold, In Stores November 16

Hardware upgrade enthusiasts start your wallets -- Crysis, arguably the most anticipated PC first-person action game to come along in years, just went gold today, according to Electronic Arts and German-based developer Crytek. 1UP popped the news this evening, pointing to November 16 as the magic day you'll be able to officially buy a game so power-greedy it had to be time-warped back from a future where PCs can actually run it.

"We are extremely proud of what we have been able to accomplish with Crysis," said Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli. "We wanted to push the boundaries both visually and with open-ended, non-linear gameplay and we believe the end result delivers that vision."

Oh happy day, Crysis at the locked (but for you, unlocked!) highest detail settings runs like a dream on my DirectX 9 Windows XP "take-a-hike-Windows-Vista-ain't-gonna-miss-ya-dee-ex-10" PC.

What's he talking about? XP vs. Vista. Have the latter and you can run Crysis full bore; have the former and you can only crank the visual throttle up to three-quarter, tops.

Unless of course you simply copy and paste a few lines of text in a handful of game directory CFG files, at which point the ostensibly DX10-only 'very high' special effects for water, shadows, shaders, textures and more can be yours, sweetened by Windows XP's superior performance.

What's it do?

Turns out Crysis isn't as DX10-y as some might have you believe by making the 'very high' detail settings unusable unless you're running Vista. Crysis on XP is out of the gate locked at 'high', a significant visual downgrade from 'very high' in all instances.

While fiddling with the text file parameters for Crysis' configuration settings, someone figured out that by placing the 'very high' settings under 'high', the game not only (mis)reads them, they actually render. Sun rays, depth of field, advanced physics, particles, and volumetric effects -- all available, and apparently not DX10 effects. What's more, Crysis under XP runs dramatically (~10fps) faster on my system, setting for setting, be it 'low', 'medium', or 'high'.

"As good" looking on XP and faster? What's up with that?

The cynic will argue Crytek cordoned 'very high' off from XP users arbitrarily and merely to help Microsoft promote Vista. Look at Shadowrun, they'll say, a Vista-exclusive game that was shown to run identically under Windows XP.

The idealist will probably argue that there's still a DX10 component not parsing in the above tweak, i.e. Crysis on XP using 'very high' settings is still in some capacity (notable or no) at least technically inferior to Crysis under Vista. Cache logs suggests Shader 4.0 calls, which is a hardwired DX10-exclusive.

In any event, the truth is that Crysis does look appreciably better with the above tweaks running under XP, and there's no way Crytek or Microsoft are going to be able to pretend that it doesn't. But publicly ignore? Probably.

Let's just hope the powers that be don't "break" the tweak in the final version which just went gold and should hit store shelves Friday November 16.

Pokemon Seat Cushion for Classroom Sitting

There is it, the pre-order Pokémon seat cushion.

Today, Mini-Bash took it to school. When he got back home, he told us that no other kids had a yellow Diamond & Pearl cushion, but that one other kid had a blue one. The rest?

They apparently had Pooh Bear and Anpanman ones, which Mini-Bash once again confirmed are "for babies." Gotta pre-order, kiddos!

From: Kotaku

Phantom Hourglass tops Euro charts

Number one seller in Germany and Spain

Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass has entered the charts in Spain and Germany at number one on the first week of release.

In Germany the DS title just manages to outsell EA and Valve's The Orange Box package, which enters at number two.

As a publisher Nintendo has four of the top ten titles in the region, with both Dr Kawashima games continuing to sell well, along with Pokemon Diamond.

Over in Spain, Electronic Arts FIFA 08 is hogging the top ten, with the PlayStation 2 version at two, the PS3 version at four and the PSP title at nine.

The top ten best-selling games in Germany and Spain follow:

Germany

1. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)

2. The Orange Box (PC)

3. FIFA 08 (PS2)

4. The Settlers (PC)

5. More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima (DS)

6. Naruto Ultimate Ninja 2 (PS2)

7. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)

8. Pokemon Diamond (DS)

9. FIFA 08 (PC)

10. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)

Spain

1. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)

2. FIFA 08 (PS2)

3. Project Gotham Racing 4 (Xbox 360)

4. FIFA 08 (PS3)

5. WWE Smackdown! Vs. RAW 2007 (PS2)

6. More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima (DS)

7. My Sims (DS)

8. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)

9. FIFA 08 (PSP)

10. Pokemon Diamond (DS)

All data supplied by Media Control Gfk International.

Manhunt 2 online due to Loophole

A legal loophole could allow the banned computer game Manhunt 2 to be released online, it has been reported.

The controversial game, developed by Edinburgh-based company Rockstar, was refused a rating and effectively banned in the UK by film censors for the "overly bleak tone and casual encouragement of unnecessary and casual sadism".

The 1984 Video Recordings Act, however, covers only physical products, as it was written with video cassettes in mind, and so experts believe a legal grey area exists which could be exploited by the company.

A download is not a physical product, and it has been suggested the game could therefore be released as a download for consoles such as the Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii, both of which already have online stores for owners to download games.

The company has not said whether this is an avenue it is likely to explore, and is currently still waiting on an appeal against the film censors' decision, in the hope that the game can be released for general sale.

A censored version of the game is set to be released in America on Wednesday.