Hellgate: London Beta Patch

The Hellgate: London v1.2 beta patch is for the single-player portion of the game only, and can be found here.

To see what changes and fixes have been made, check out the very extensive release notes.

Since the patch is a beta, use at your own risk.

EA Rail Simulator for PC was £34.99 now £14.99 at PC World UK

PC World UK

EA Rail Simulator £15 (was £35) inc del @ PCWorld

Rail Simulator is the next step in railway simulation. It allows the player to take on the role of a train driver and guide a number of trains through several recreated routes in the UK and Germany.

• Charge steam, diesel & electric Trains
  
• Real routes in the UK and Germany
  
• Challenging and fun gameplay
  
• Design their own ideal journey routes
  
• The gold standard rail simulation title
  

Buy it here

New Game Sales Growth Overtaking Used with Nintendo top seller

In Gamestop’s latest SEC regulatory filing, the major U.S. game retailer has revealed the changing landscape for dedicated video game retailers, with sales of new video games displacing used game sales, and Nintendo-created hardware and software 21% of all stock purchases by the chain.

Specifically revealed in the detailed financial filing for the also internationally-trading firm - sales of new video game hardware, new video game software and used video game products grew by an approximate respective 55%, 39% and 21% in fiscal 2007, due primarily to new store growth and the increase in store sales.

GameStop attributed the increases across the board to “the continued popularity of the Nintendo Wii following its worldwide launch in November 2006, the launch of the Sony PlayStation 3 in Australia and Europe in March 2007, and the release of several strong software titles in the fall of 2007, including Halo 3, Guitar Hero III, Call of Duty 4 and Rock Band.”

In hard numbers, sales increased by $1.78 billion, or 33.4%, to $7.09 billion in fiscal 2007, compared to $5.32 billion in fiscal 2006. The sales broken down:

- New video game hardware sales increased $595.2 million or 55.4% over the year, and increased as a percentage of sales from 20.2% in fiscal 2006 to 23.5% in fiscal 2007.

- New video game software sales increased $788.2 million, or 39.2%, and as a percentage of total sales increased from 37.8% in fiscal 2006 to 39.5% in fiscal 2007.

- Used video game product sales increased $270.7 million, or 20.6%. As a percentage of sales, used video game product sales decreased from 24.8% to 22.4%.

- Sales of other product categories, including PC entertainment and other software and accessories, magazines and trading cards, grew 13.2%, or $121.0 million, from fiscal 2006 to fiscal 2007.

The filing revealed that the majority of these sales came within the fourth quarter of 2007, with approximately 40% of sales and 58% of our operating earnings gained during the fourth fiscal quarter, which includes the all-important holiday selling season.

Gamestop’s filing also revealed their vendor relationship, revealing that they purchase products from approximately 75 manufacturers and software publishers, and approximately five distributors.

In particular, purchases from the top ten vendors accounting for approximately 80% of new product purchases in fiscal 2007 – with Nintendo (21%) Sony (17%) Microsoft (16%) and Electronic Arts (11%) individually accounting for most of the new product purchases.

Source: Gamasutra

MLB ’08 The Show – Best Baseball Video Game?

For you baseball fans with a Playstation 3 -

I strongly suggest walking down to your nearest Best Buy, Gamestop, Walmart or wherever you buy your video games from - and do yourselves a favor and pick up MLB ‘08 The Show.

Simply put, this game is the most realistic baseball game I have ever played.

For starters, the graphics are amazing. The stadium recreations are top notch and the player movements are as real as they come. For example, if you play a game at Shea, there are cranes working on a half-done CitiField in the background. Sick.

It actually really FEELS like you are playing a baseball game, which is why I like it so much. Not since Baseball Stars on NES have I enjoyed playing a video baseball game.

Check out the YouTube video below and you’ll see what I’m talking about. I apologize in advance as the vid shows Pedro and the Mets losing to the Braves (which we all know will never happen lol).

Notice how Pedro’s windup and pitching style is recreated EXACTLY in the game.


Source: Metsbrotha

Better graphics on Sony PlayStation 3 than Microsoft XBox 360?

Red Faction: Guerrilla producer tells VideoGamer.com dev team is "finding some of the challenges of the PS3 beneficial".

The PS3 has the potential to achieve better graphics than the Xbox 360, a Volition developer has told VideoGamer.com.

Speaking to VideoGamer.com at THQ's Gamers Day in San Francisco, California, this week, Jeff Carroll, associate producer in charge of multiplayer and PS3 on upcoming third-person action game Red Faction: Guerrilla, said that while developers will struggle with the PS3 at first, once they "figure it out" they will find "a very powerful system underneath".

Red Faction: Guerrilla, the third in the popular series, sees a switch from the FPS view seen in the first two games to a third-person view. Scheduled for a simultaneous Xbox 360, PS3 and PC release in THQ's fiscal year 2009, the game has come on leaps and bounds since its first-look public unveiling earlier in the year.

When asked if there would be any differences between the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, Carroll replied: "We've got the PS3 running at a similar frame rate to the 360. We're finding some of the challenges of the PS3 beneficial. We feel like we're doing rather well with the PS3."

Carroll went into more detail on the benefits of the PS3: "We have been getting the physics system, the Havok system and our own proprietary destruction system running on the SPUs, as well as our animations. We're seeing quite a decent speed improvement now that we've effectively got that running on the SPUs instead of the CPUs."
Carroll agreed, however, that many developers have found the PS3 to be a challenging platform, and admitted that Volition shared that struggle, at first.

"We were like that at the beginning. But I think mainly because we had to get our destruction system running on the SPUs, we had to get it running well in order to succeed, we felt a tremendous pressure right at the beginning to learn as much as we could about the PS3. And our programmers have done a wonderful job."

When asked whether it is possible to achieve better graphics on the PS3 compared with the Xbox 360, Carroll said: "I think potentially you will. I think early on people are going to be struggling to figure out exactly how to make the PS3 work. But I think once they do they will see it's a very powerful system underneath. They both have their advantages. The Xbox 360 pushes polygons rather well, which for us, because everything is destructible, that means that we have a tremendous number of polygons in our game compared to regular games, we see a great benefit with the Xbox 360, but we just learn to optimise in different ways for the PS3."

In Red Faction: Guerrilla, players will be able to destroy every building they see through a combination of weapons, vehicles and explosives. Real world physics are applied to the structures, often leading to a collapse through real-time structural stress.

Carroll added that the game is "very much" pushing the PS3, "both in terms of memory and processing power."

The sound of BioShock is here

More in game audio! Elizabeth at 2K Games heard me talking about how I want to post more game audio on my site. Thanks to her, I have a little bit of BioShock audio to share with you. These are nice clean audio files, taken directly from the digital master files used to create the game. The files includes my personal favorite: audio from the vending machine. Longtime listeners of my show will recognize who puts the voice and attitude in said machine

Vending Machine: Circus of Values (long)
Vending Machine: Circus of Values (short)
Vending Machine: Come back when you get some money…
Vending Machine: I’ve got a family to feed
Vending Machine: No Refunds
Gatherers Garden
In the Garden…

All files have been encoded at 256k MP3.

Source: MajorNelson

Free DLC Now Available for Unreal Tournament III

Midway and Epic Games have announced that three new maps are now available for download for Unreal Tournament III on the PS3 and PC. As icing on the cake, it turns out this new content is 100% free for both versions of the game (take that microtransactions). PC users can download the maps by clicking the link below, while PS3 users can find them on the Playstation Network. The three maps include Morbias, Facing Worlds, and Searchlight:

Morbias is the deathmatch arena that started it all, perfectly suited for anything from small intense duels to chaotic free-for-all matches. The Unreal Tournament classic, Facing Worlds was one of the most played maps in gaming history. This beloved sniper map makes its return alongside an intricate new capture the flag map, Searchlight, designed for both z-axis rooftop runs and strategic indoor gameplay.

Maybe this will convince more people to jump on this woefully underappreciated game.

WALL•E video game screenshots

What if mankind had to leave Earth, and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off?



WALL•E, a robot, spends every day doing what he was made for.

THQ sends word that they plan to release the Wall-E video game in conjunction with the theatrical debut of the upcoming Disney-Pixar animated film this Summer. The game is in development for the Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS, PC/Mac, as well as wireless devices. In the works at Heavy Iron Studios, the game is the second title that is the result of a deal between THQ and Pixar; the first was Ratatouille, which was released last year.

The game, as expected, allows players to reenact scenes from the film. It will include head-to-head multiplayer challenges, as well as new storylines and environments that will not be in the actual movie.



But soon, he will discover what he was meant for. From Academy Award-winning writer-director, Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo), Disney•Pixar’s WALL•E is the story of one robot's comic adventures as he chases his dream across the galaxy.

Oral Hygiene Game that makes Kids Brush Teeth Better

Watch the video here

With the help of a computerised toothbrush - when children brush using the system, the toothbrush's LEDs get mapped via webcam onto a representation of a mouth, which then shows kids which teeth have already been brushed and which teeth need more cleaning.

The kids using the system were "twice as effective at cleaning their teeth following the trial."

Nokia portable gaming goes live

Nokia's N-Gage gaming service lives on despite the console phone line dying a quick death, and this time it is ready to rock and roll to the following handsets :- 

Nokia N81


Nokia N81 8GB


Nokia N82


Nokia N95


Nokia N95 8GB

Those with a N73, N93 and N93i will have to wait for a little bit longer.