Gibson Goes on Suing Spree Over Guitar Hero, Rock Band

Follow up story --

Gibson Guitar hits Wal-Mart, Target, others for selling Guitar Hero games

Earlier this month, Gibson accused Activision of its Guitar Hero franchise violating several of the real-guitar makers’ patents. Activision responded by asking a federal judge to declare that the Guitar Hero does not owe anything to Gibson’s patents.

U.S. Patent number 5990405 awarded to Gibson in 1999 reads,

“A musician can simulate participation in a concert by playing a musical instrument and wearing a head-mounted 3D display that includes stereo speakers. Audio and video portions of a musical concert are pre-recorded, along with a separate sound track corresponding to the musical instrument played by the musician.”

Gibson isn’t finished with just Guitar Hero, however, as it has also filed a patent infringement lawsuit against those behind Rock Band – Harmonix, MTV Networks and Electronic Arts – over the very same patent thrown up against Guitar Hero.

“Gibson Guitar had made good faith efforts to enter into a patent license agreement with the defendants in this case. The defendants have not responded in a timely manner with an intent to enter into negotiations for a patent license agreement,” read a Gibson press statement. “Gibson Guitar had no alternative but to bring the suit, and it will continue to protect its intellectual property rights against any and all infringing persons.”

Besides going after the makers of the music-rhythm games, Gibson is also launching an offensive against retailers selling such products. Last week, Gibson brought a lawsuit against Wal-Mart, Target, Wal-Mart, Kmart, Amazon.com, GameStop and Toys “R” Us for their sale of Guitar Hero games.

“Gibson Guitar took this action reluctantly, but is required to protect its intellectual property and will continue to do so against any other person in accordance with the law and its rights,”

the guitar maker said in another statement.

Activision responded in a press release to Gibson’s attack on retailers:

“Our Guitar Hero retailing partners have done nothing wrong. We will confront this and any other efforts by Gibson to wrongfully interfere with Activision's relationship with its customers and its consumers.

“As Activision noted in its filing, Gibson waited three years to make its patent allegations, and only did so after it became clear that Activision was not interested in renewing its marketing and support agreement with Gibson. Activision continues to believe that Gibson's claims are disingenuous and lack any justification.”

Source: DailyTech

Nyko Front Man Wireless Guitar for Guitar Hero III ships

Nyko Technologies, a leading gaming peripherals manufacturer has announced to ship Front Man Wireless Guitar for the Nintendo Wii. The new peripheral is compatible with Guitar Hero III.

The new Front Man Wireless Guitar uses the Wii Remote for wireless power and connectivity.

Other features of the new Front Man Wireless Guitar include:

• Accurate and responsive whammy bar
  
• Bi-directional strum bar
  
• Responsive and durable fret buttons
  
• Two interchangeable pick guards in designer colors
  

"We wanted to expand upon our success with the FrontMan for PS2 by adding additional functionality and attention to detail that true fans of the series can appreciate,”

said Chris Arbogast, Marketing Director at Nyko Technologies.

“The Front Man for Wii ups the bar on aesthetics and customization for third party guitars while still providing top-notch gameplay at a decent price point,”

added Arbogast.

Nyko’s Front Man Wireless Guitar is available in the US market right away at the price of $49.99.

Source: TechShout

Two Worlds: The Temptation for Xbox 360, PC coming in 2008

SouthPeak Games together with ZUXXEZ Entertainment have announced a sequel to its hugely popular open world RPG called Two Worlds: The Temptation. This game is being developed for the Xbox 360 and Windows PC platforms.

This game takes place shortly after the events portrayed in the first Two Worlds. The sequel takes place in Eastern Antaloor, in the regions surrounding Oswaroh and the Drak’ar Desert.

Two Worlds: The Temptation is expected to feature as much content as the original game.

Miroslaw Dymek, Chief Developer with Reality Pump explained, “Our entire development team is now putting their all into making Two Worlds: The Temptation, a game this is far better than the original.”

It is also known that this game will feature much more intricate missions, improved voice-overs and animations, retooled horseback riding, revamped combat as well as a new game engine.

“We’ve taken to heart all the comments made by gamers about Two Worlds and we’re going to give them what they want with the sequel,”

added Dymek.

The role playing game Two Worlds: The Temptation is expected to be out on Windows PCs and the Xbox 360 console in Fall 2008.

Source: Tech Shout

Play 'The Graveyard' Free video game on PC and Mac

The Graveyard is a very short computer game designed by Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn.

You play an old lady who visits a graveyard.

You walk around, sit on a bench and listen to a song.

It's more like an explorable painting than an actual game.

An experiment with realtime poetry, with storytelling without words.

System Recomendations:
Mac OSX, Intel or PPC processor, with Radeon or GeForce video card (G5, iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook Pro)
Windows PC, XP or Vista with Radeon or GeForce video card (no integrated graphics)

Navigate with keyboard or joystick.

Download the Trial version of The Graveyard.

Mac version

PC version

Agatha Christie Too Mysterious On Nintendo Wii - Review

W.I.R.E.D. Review --

I can tell you the exact moment that I decided to stop playing Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None and never come back.

But first let me say how much I appreciate the effort. The Wii's mouselike controller and casual audience make it perfect for point-and-click adventure games, which of course is why absolutely no one has bothered to make one. No one except The Adventure Company (natch), who has ported its 2005 PC adventure game And Then There Were None, based on the best-selling novel, to Wii.

As a proof of concept, it works like a charm. Adventure games work very well on Wii. The interface transfers over perfectly, the one-handed controls mean you can eat lunch while you puzzle over the game's brainteasers, and high-tech graphics aren't important to the slow-paced style.

But as a game, And Then There Were None commits every cardinal sin of bad adventure design.

When I first started playing the game - how silly I feel, looking back! - I thought it was shaping up to be too easy. The re-enactment of Agatha Christie's famous novel was speeding along at a rapid clip: Ten strangers arrive on an isolated island, and one by one their mysterious and absent host begins to murder them. By the time five people lay dead, I'd only solved a few puzzles, although I'd amassed a sizeable inventory of objects whose uses I could not even begin to guess at.
By this point, my main complaint with the game was that too much of it seemed to revolve around tramping around the island aimlessly, having absolutely no direction as to what to do, and finding nothing. Eventually, I'd pass some arbitrary waypoint and the game would load up the next cut-scene, somebody else would die, and the game would continue on with me having done very little.

And then, about halfway through, I hit The Wall. My character decided that now was the time to put his "plan" into action, a plan that he had not shared with me, for getting off the island. Great! Only except I had pretty much clicked on everything by this point and didn't know what to do. Applying a little more brain power, I discovered the secret entrance to a hidden room. But was still totally stuck.

Before I tell you what happened next, you have to understand that the game's shelf life was rapidly deteriorating. And Then There Were None is not a good-looking game by anyone's measure; the characters and environments were pug-ugly in 2005 and the journey to Wii did them no favors. The writing is mediocre, the voice acting barely passable, and the music is one repeating piano piece that would drive one to suicide if there were not already a murderer on the loose.
I had been quite forgiving of all of this because, well, it's based on a great murder story that I haven't read. By this point (about four or five hours in), I was getting absorbed into the murder mystery and wanted to know what happened next.
So bearing all this in mind, I hope you understand why I went to the Internet for help. Loading up a FAQ for the game, I was immediately confronted not with a head-slappingly obvious solution to the puzzle, but a giant list of in-game items that I had absolutely no idea existed.
The pipe stem is in the ladies' bathroom? I marveled. I went in that bathroom like ten times and looked everywhere! But there it was: A miniature gathering of pixels that for all the world looked like a slight discoloration in the sink tile, something that I never in a million years would have clicked on.

More revelations from the FAQ: Belied by the serious, realistic ambience, the latter half of the game hinges on the sort of completely ludicrous, use-the-turkey-baster-with-the-flour1 type of puzzles that no one ever solves unless they a) cheat b) try to combine every object with every other object in a desperate bid to make progress.
Yes, I could have brute-forced my way through some of the puzzles using just that technique given enough time, but some of them were profoundly absurd in their opacity. Had I really been enraptured with the story and presentation, I might have just looked up the puzzle I was stuck on and proceeded from there, but by that point I had lost all ability to care, and shut the game off forever.

I'd like to encourage The Adventure Company to bring more point-and-clicks to Wii, but please, please make them better than this.

Source: W.I.R.E.D.

Ubisoft pay $100m + for Tom Clancy rights?

As reported earlier - In a deal some analysts are saying could be worth north of $100M, Ubisoft announced last Thursday that it had “concluded an agreement with Mr. Tom Clancy to acquire all intellectual property rights to the Tom Clancy name.” That means Ubisoft now has total control over the 61-year-old author's name regarding its use in video games and all related products, including movies, books, and merchandise.

This is a clear indication of the value Ubisoft places on its ever-growing roster of Tom Clancy branded titles. Over the past decade the military themed games have become the French publisher's most lucrative franchise, with dozens of titles now available on virtually all platforms—including Tom Clancy's Rainbox Six Vegas 2, which was released just two days prior to Ubisoft's announcement and is widely expected to be one of the best-selling console titles this spring.

But just what has Ubisoft purchased? Much like the majority of books that carry the Tom Clancy moniker, none of the Tom Clancy games have actually been penned by the American author. What's more, people don't normally buy Tom Clancy games for their characters, stories, or political concepts. The games' value to consumers derives primarily from their evolved play mechanics and polished presentation—things that have sprung entirely out of the minds of the hard working developers at Ubisoft, and which could easily be applied to a military game lacking the Tom Clancy name. Indeed, that which we call a Tom Clancy game by any other name would still play as sweet.

The question is, without the Tom Clancy logo, would people buy it?

Ubisoft seems to think not. The Tom Clancy brand is familiar. What's more, people who like realistic military games have come to trust anything with the Tom Clancy emblem; all of the most recent console entries in the Tom Clancy canon (Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2, and the Rainbow Six game mentioned above) have received rave reviews from critics and gamers alike.

Simply put, Tom Clancy games sell themselves, and Ubisoft knows it. Indeed, it seems entirely possible that their intention in buying the Tom Clancy name is not just to avoid paying royalties on their existing series, but also to stamp the Tom Clancy brand on newly conceived military themed games that have little or nothing to do with established Tom Clancy stories and characters. In other words, they're going to use it as a marketing device to sell otherwise unrelated games.

Ubisoft currently has at least three wholly new Tom Clancy franchises in the works, including a World War III real-time strategy game called EndWar, an as-yet unnamed air combat title, and a recently unveiled massively multiplayer online game. Little is known about these games yet, but from what I've been able to gather they appear to have next to nothing to do with anything Tom Clancy has ever written. (The book Tom Clancy's EndWar, which was published earlier this year—and which Ubisoft now owns outright—isn't the foundation for the upcoming game, but rather derived from it; a clever tool to drive publicity for the software.)

It would be easy to chalk up Ubisoft's acquisition of the Tom Clancy name as simply being a sly marketing manoeuvre—which it undoubtedly is. However, it may also be good news for gamers tired of finding the shelves of their local game shops lined with little more than sequels to existing blockbusters and games based on movies, comics, and television.

How so? The upcoming Tom Clancy games appear to feature new characters in fresh stories set in their own universes. Plus, Ubisoft has a track record of introducing some great new play concepts in each new Tom Clancy sub-franchise (the Splinter Cell games reinvented the stealth genre, and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter delivered a decidedly novel form of futuristic combat). In other words, despite the fact that they will be called Tom Clancy's this or that, Ubisoft's new crop of military games could end up being surprisingly original in both narrative and design.

Indeed, it seems possible that by purchasing the ability to use the Tom Clancy name however it wishes, Ubisoft has, in effect, freed its designers to create any kind of military games they can think of while letting the company's suits rest assured that the familiar logo on the package will help these titles earn mountains of cash. And now that they own Tom Clancy's name, they'll get to keep every last penny.

Source: The Globe and Mail

Mario Kart on Nintendo Wii game trailer

Watch the trailer here

Hot Shots Golf: Oob 1 Up Review

Sonys whimsical golf series is confirmed to be making another appearance on the PS3. Expect to see big-headed, cartoony characters hitting the greens and fighting their way out of sand traps on various nice-looking fantasy courses.

Watch the video here

Condemned 2: Bloodshot Demo Download on PlayStation Network

SEGA released the demo for Condemned 2: Bloodshot for the PlayStation 3.

The demo is taken from mid-way through the first level and gives players an opportunity to get to grips with Ethan Thomas, the former Serial Crimes Unit investigator, in his crusade to discover just what is going on in the sinister world around him.

The full game is now at retailers and sells for $59.99.

First Look At Sonic Unleashed

Sonic fan site Sonic Stadium writes that it may have uncovered the first shots of Sonic Unleashed, the title Sega trademarked earlier this month.

According to Sonic Stadium, the screen shots, some in-game, some pre-rendered CG, were culled from one of Sega's FTP servers.

They certainly look like the genuine article, giving the impression that Sonic Unleashed will be coming to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, hopefully with gameplay that's more Sonic and the Secret Rings than it is Sonic the Hedgehog "Next-Gen."

Source: Kotaku