16GB memory stick for Sony PSP

Tired of deleting all your old episodes of Battlestar Galactica just to make room for new ones? 

Wishing you could move your entire porn collection over to your PSP instead of just alphabetised chunks? Sing and rejoice, then, for your prayers, well, they have been answered. 

Sony have announced a new 16GB MS Duo, which when combined with a longer battery life may finally make the PSP your first and only multimedia companion for long-distance flights. Or...it will be if you think spending $300 on a memory stick is acceptable behaviour. If you do, this baby's out in March.

Source: Kotaku

http://kotaku.com/341376/sony-announce-16gb-memory-stick-for-psp

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Save £30 XBox Half-Life 2 only £9.99 at Play.com with Free P&P

By taking the suspense, challenge and visceral charge of the original, adding startling new realism and responsiveness, Half-Life 2 opens the door to a world where the player's presence affects everything around him, from the physical environment to the behaviours - even the emotions - of both friends and enemies.

The player again picks up the crowbar of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted, its populace dwindling.

Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa. And a lot of people - people he cares about - are counting on him.

Buy it here ... http://www.play.com/Games/Xbox/4-/742148/Half-Life-2/Product.html

Source Code for SimCity released

"Source code for SimCity has been released under the GPLv3. For legal reasons the open source version was renamed Micropolis, which was apparently the original working title. The OLPC will also be getting a SimCity branded version that has been QA'ed by Electronic Arts.

Some very cool changes have been made by Don Hopkins, who updated and ported what is now Micropolis. (Here is an earlier Slashdot discussion kicked off by a submission Don made.) Among other things, it has been revamped from the original C to using C++ with Python. Here is the page linking all the various source code versions. Happy hacking!"

More here...

How Halo 3 Changed Game Development - Tom Carroll

The Difficulty of Difficulty

The success of the Halo franchise has led to a need to appeal to a wider collection of gamers than just those labeled "hard core." As a result, in Halo 3 the easy and normal settings are easier than they might have been prior, and the heroic and legendary settings are likewise more difficult. Casual gamers will be overjoyed with the easy setting, but they'll miss out on numerous cool features of the game, including hidden skulls and cool enemy AI. Dedicated gamers, the ones who have invested hours mastering earlier incarnations of Halo, will want to jump in on heroic or legendary, lest they risk becoming bored from the start.

The secret skulls were first included in Halo 2, but then they nearly always activated some challenging feature, such as not being able to see anything on your HUD. In Halo 3, the system of skulls is much more challenging (read: fun) for anyone choosing to find them and activate them. A skull might make it so you can't see your gun scope, or enable enemies to throw grenades faster. Activating a golden skull makes the game harder for the player, but by surviving you earn a lot more points.

More from... http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/482/how_halo_3_changed_game_.php?page=2

Sony discontinue 20 & 60 gb PlayStation 3 in Japan version left cannot play PS2 games...

SCEI made an announcement in reference to Japan no longer shipping the 20GB and 60GB PlayStation 3 configurations.

"We have already stopped shipping these in the US and have been focused on the 80GB and 40GB configurations which are currently at retail," the company said in a statement.

"As we've said, we will also continue to read and evaluate market trends and communicate with consumers to determine appropriate configurations for each territory."

The 40gb model was introduced last November and in the US where the 20gb has also been discontinued - the last few were in great demand.

Sony release a 40gb US model in October but this doesn't play older PlayStation 3 games.

Tough year for Microsoft and the Xbox 360?

Success comes in many guises. Most people would agree that 2007 was a successful year for the Xbox 360 - a year when the firm's head-start over rival Sony was used to great effect, and when the console's software line-up was widely considered to be one of the strongest the industry has ever seen.

It was the year in which Halo 3 arrived, was critically acclaimed, and sold around 8 million copies - and perhaps most impressively of all, it was the year when Halo 3 almost seemed buried in an avalanche of superb games, whereas in any previous year it would have stood astride the software landscape like a colossus. It was the year when Xbox Live user figures passed the 10 million mark, and the year when Microsoft registered its second ever profitable quarter for the Xbox division (although it almost certainly slid back into a loss in the following quarter).

A good year, then? Well - maybe. Success is multi-faceted, and it's important to look at it from many angles before you make up your mind and stick a label on something. There are other ways in which 2007 was a terrible year for Microsoft - and in some regards, the company's lacklustre showing at CES in Las Vegas last week may be a hangover from those failings.

More from ... Games Industry

Sony PSP titles available on PlayStation Network download

Sony also plans "bite-size" games for download service

Sony plans to give PSP titles a new lease of life by making them available digitally over the PlayStation Network.

Games that have been dropped by retail but are still in demand by consumers will head to Sony's online store, as well as short "bite-size" titles, according Sony's senior product manager John Koller.

Speaking to Kotaku, Koller said that PSP titles which "retailers aren't interested in carrying at this stage, games that we hear a lot of demand from PSP owners," will be re-released over the service.

Sony has already released a handful of retail PSP titles via the newly re-launched PlayStation Store, most notably first-party releases B-Boy and Fired Up.

Demos, trailers and classic PSone titles are already part of the offering, but Koller said the company is keen to experiment with shorter, more immediate gaming experiences.

"We have an opportunity to bring bite-size experiences to the system, ten minute, pick up and play content that can be downloaded from the store," said Koller.

Movies on the UMD format are likely to benefit from a price reduction, and Koller also said Sony was happy to see Blu-ray movies come with an embedded PSP-formated version of the title, as recently announced at CES.

"Any way we can help get that multimedia content onto the PSP, we're going to take it," he said.

Source: Games Industry - Kotaku

Japan - top ten video games ALL Nintendo Wii and DS titles

Wii and DS titles pack out the entire top ten and 25 of the top 30

If ending 2007 on a dominant note wasn't enough for Nintendo, the first Japanese software chart of 2008 will be depressing reading for Sony and Microsoft in that territory.

All of the top ten in the software sales chart for the week ending January 6 were games for either the Wii or DS, with those platforms taking up 25 of the top 30 positions as well.

According to the latest Media Create data only three PlayStation 2 titles and two PlayStation Portable games prevented a complete whitewash.

Top of the list was Mario Party DS, selling just under 200,000 units, while Wii Fit broke the million total sales barrier in second and Wii Sports saw a revival in third.

Final Fantasy IV raced past the 500,000 mark in fourth, Super Mario Galaxy was fifth with Dragon Quest IV in sixth – but not one of the top ten was a new entry.

In total there were four Mario titles in the top ten, while Nintendo itself published seven of the games present – Square Enix was responsible for two, and Level 5 for one

The highest non-Nintendo title was Monster Hunter Portable 2nd for the PSP in 14th place.

The full Japanese top ten chart is as follows:

1. Mario Party DS (DS)
2. Wii Fit (Wii)
3. Wii Sports (Wii)
4. Final Fantasy IV (DS)
5. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
6. Wii Play (Wii)
7. Dragon Quest IV (DS)
8. Prof Layton and Pandora's Box (DS)
9. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii)
10. Mario Party 8 (Wii)

New Scorpion trailer released

Suffer the agonies and
Catch a trouble but still
Oppose the rotten government’s control,
React to what they do to your life now that
Peace’s been forgotten.
Initiate the resistance,
Outfox those who’s stronger and
Nothing can stop you since you’re Scorpion, the special agent whose destiny is to fight the evil.

Just imagine the world where there’s no place for mercy, compassion, or sympathy. That’s the Earth of 2028. Drastic changes that followed the sudden crisis split the society into several parts – all of them opposing each other. You are offered to wear the shoes of a special agent who has to penetrate the Zenith Corporation that breeds monsters, initiates killings and, actually, rules the world.

There’s a new trailer available to show you more of these dark and somber surroundings, ugly zombies and dangerous dungeons you’ll need to go through. 

The trailer can be downloaded at Scorpion’s webpage: http://en.akella.com/Game.aspx?id=3&mode=video



About Scorpion

Genre: FPS
Platform: PC
Publisher: Akella
Developer: B-Cool Interactive
Release date: Q2 2008

After several major economical and political crises the world as we know it ceased to exist. Only few major states survived 2020s, while the lesser authorities have collapsed, leaving behind anarchy and pollution. The power vacuum was filled by key international companies which acquired control over derelict territories, forming Free Commerce Areas (FCAs).

In early 2030s ruins of unknown origin were discovered in Sudan. Several artifacts possibly of alien nature were quickly revealed and soon major dig has started. But few months of work as well as the bulk of the dig team were lost to the underground explosion followed by contamination of the region. To prevent diseases from spreading a series of nuclear strikes were made to completely annihilate the site. These events have caused major resonance and soon a treaty limiting the usage of dangerous technologies and weapon systems was signed between the FCAs and UNO. As a result the International Committee of Technology and Warfare Supervision (ICTS) with its own military and intelligence units, was created.

Same time few survivors of Sudan Incident emerged as founders of newly formed Zenith Corporation. This institution with HQ in Zagreb FCA quickly established itself as a notorious player on weapon, pharmaceutics and IT markets. But in 2028 several instances of Zenith weapon systems together with samples of unidentified biological weapons were discovered during the liquidation of the extremists’ Albanian group in Kosovo.

ICTS immediately started investigation. It was planned to infiltrate Zenith as a customer with clear ties to one of the terrorists’ organization and get a proof of its illegal activity. One of the best ICTS field agents, codename Scorpion, has been assigned to this mission…

Key Game Features
Intense action in cyber-punk styled Earth 2028
Futuristic storyline supported by multiple cut-scenes
Combination of first-person combat and stealth action elements provides unique gaming experience
Impressive arsenal of upgradeable weapons
Characters can gain access to several paranormal psychic powers including the ability to subdue the will of enemies for a short period of time
Advanced squad-oriented combat AI creates a strong challenging opposition
Elite opponents possess supernatural powers similar to those of the player’s character
Cutting-edge game engine produces a detailed realistic picture