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Friday, January 02, 2009

Neverland Winter Nights 2 Expansion Pack Storm of Zahir

A land of adventure and intrigue awaits in Storm of Zehir. Shipwrecked on the shores of a hostile jungle nation, your adventuring party must fight its way to civilization, uncovering a plot that will change Faerûn forever. Powerful allies will join you in your fight against formidable foes, but be careful who you trust as that distinction is harder to make that you might think...

Full Party Creation: Previous NWN2 titles allowed you to create a single character which you controlled for the entire game; additional NPC party members would join you as you played through the campaign. In Storm of Zehir, however, you are now allowed to make your entire party at the beginning of the game. With the Party Editor, you can create up to three additional party members to join you on your quest, or choose from several pre-generated characters.
Party Conversation: Another major addition to Storm of Zehir lies in party conversation. In previous Neverwinter Nights titles, only your main character was capable of using skills like Intimidate, Diplomacy, and Bluff in conversation. In Storm of Zehir, however, we've added a new party conversation system that will allow you to switch between all of your party members when a conversation begins, allowing anyone to speak at any time. Each party member will have different responses in a conversation; these responses are based on a character's gender, race, class, attributes, deity and skills. Thus, you should find yourself with many more options available to you during any given conversation.
Overland Map: The Overland Map is our way of allowing the player to freely explore the game world, without any artificial restrictions being placed on them. Instead of warping from location to location on a 2D map, you can now walk around and explore the game world via the Overland Map, which is populated by guards that patrol from city to city, roaming bands of monsters that will hunt you down when they detect you, hidden dungeons deep inside the jungle, and a lot of special encounters that will appear at random as you play. So you can veer off the storyline progression at any time to explore the world as you see fit.
New Trading System: Part of Storm of Zehir's storyline revolves around Sa'Sani, an enigmatic businesswoman who had cargo on the ship which crashes at the beginning of the game. As a merchant, Sa'sani is very concerned with the ability to trade between cities and generate wealth. While you remain in Sa'Sani's employ, you will be tasked with finding rare ores and expensive animal skins, which can be converted into Trade Bars. Trade Bars are the official currency of the game's merchant guilds, one of which your party will be able to join and assist. Each merchant guild will have different rewards for advancement and different ethical guidelines for trading, so choose carefully!

Operating System: Windows XP
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 2000 or equivalent (Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 or equivalent (or higher) recommended)
Memory: 1 GB RAM (2 GB RAM recommended)
Hard Disk Space: 8 GB Free
DVD-ROM Drive: 4X Speed (8X Speed or higher recommended)
Video: 256 MB Shader Model 3.0-compatible video card (512 MB recommended)*
Sound: Windows XP-compatible sound card
Multiplayer: Local area network with TCP/IP protocol or Broadband Internet connection
DirectX: DirectX version 9.0c or higher

* Indicates that device should be compatible with DirectX version 9.0c or higher.

Nintendo to launch Wii television channel - Wii TV

A video-on-demand service is to be offered to Nintendo Wii owners with Internet connections.

Almost half of the 40 million Nintendo Wii consoles sold are connected to the Internet. Revenue will come from a mix of payed for content and advertising.

Beginning in Japan in the first quarter it is expected to be available worldwide before the end of the year.

Most of the cartoons, brain-training, cooking and puzzle programmes will be free but some may charge to download/watch. Payment will be through the Wii points system, already used to pay to buy games on the Nintendo Wii.

The Race for a new Game Machine - Microsoft Xbox 360 helped by Sony's chip team...

Sony's Cell chip developed with IBM helped Microsoft when Microsoft went to IBM for its Xbox 360 chip, according a book published today: The Race for a New Game Machine by David Shippy and Mickie Phipps (Citadel, 240 pages, $14.93). In his book he says:

In 2003, IBM's Adam Bennett showed Microsoft specs for the still-in-development Cell core. Microsoft was interested and contracted with IBM for their own chip, to be built around the core that IBM was still building with Sony.
All three of the original partners had agreed that IBM would eventually sell the Cell to other clients. But it does not seem to have occurred to Sony that IBM would sell key parts of the Cell before it was complete and to Sony's primary videogame-console competitor. The result was that Sony's R&D money was spent creating a component for Microsoft to use against it.

The Xbox 360 chip is based on IBM's PowerPC architecture the same as used in the Apple Macintosh range of computers. IBM's Introduction to the Cell multiprocessor says:

He was one of the lead architects for the POWER2*, G3 PowerPC, and POWER4* processor designs. He is currently the chief architect for the power processing unit for the Cell processor. Mr Shippy holds numerous patents, has received an IBM Tenth Plateau Invention Achievement Award, and has been recognized as an IBM Master Inventor.

For Sony, the Cell processor was such a debacle that two weeks after the Playstation 3 finally appeared in stores, the company fired Ken Kutaragi, the head of its gaming unit, who had championed the Cell and built the Playstation line. The lesson, lost on Mr Shippy and Ms Phipps, is that technical supremacy divorced from sound strategic vision is no virtue. It can even end up in disaster.

You can read the full Wall Street Journal story here...

Three New Free Indie Games to play Overflow - Space Pizza and Take Down Online

Independent online distribution platform welcomes three new games created by independent developers.

It's difficult for independent developers to attract players to their games. It can also be difficult for gamers to find new quality independent games. Archive Entertainment hopes to solve these problems with Archive Games, a digital distribution platform that connects independent developers with gamers.

Three new independent studios have partnered with Archive Entertainment to add their work to the Archive Games distribution platform:

Overflow, by Vultrix - Tax your brain with this unique puzzler in which you must redirect the flow of water to safety. Using your mouse and a steady hand, draw bridges and barriers to divert and block the onslaught of water. Includes 25 vividly surreal levels, and a freeform sandbox mode where you are free to play with the water physics.

Space Pizza, by Per Olofsson - As the newest pizza delivery driver, it is your mission to deliver pizzas without crashing into any number of conveniently placed obstacles... all while under a time limit. Fast paced and fun, this is an innovative take on the Lunar Lander concept.

Take Down Online, by 174 Studios - An in-development combat-oriented MMO; capture command points with your team as you travel by foot, humvee, or armed helicopter.

All three games can be freely downloaded now via Archive Games. Archive Entertainment continues to seek new relationships with developers to bring independent games to fans. For more information about Archive Games, please visit http://www.ArchiveGames.net/

Videogamer's top 5 video games 'moments' in 2008

1. Microsoft's shock Final Fantasy XIII Xbox 360 E3 announcement
2. Dennis Dyack versus NeoGaf
3. LittleBigPlanet's delay
4. Grand Theft Auto IV's all-conquering launch
5. Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain Leipzig presentation

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Fahrenheit Paranormal thriller video game

New York January 2009 For no apparent reason, ordinary people are killing total strangers. Although there are no direct links between the murders, they all show the same ritual patterns.

Lucas Kane becomes one of these murderers, and haunted by strange visions he must try to keep one step ahead of the police to discover what is happening to him Inspector Carla Valenti and Agent Tyler Miles are heading up the investigation.

A series of disturbing clues takes them into a world they can only dream of Meanwhile the early onset of winter paralyses Manhattan in an unbearable grip of snow and cold. Each day the temperature drops as the winter conditions draw over the dark streets of New York.

The final countdown has already begun!

* Paranormal thriller with an absorbing storyline
* Tense and chilling atmosphere in a Hitcockian style Multi view split screen to allow the player to view different areas and activities in the game
* Easy to use and learn interface
* Choose to play and switch between 4 of the key character during the game
* Mental health system to keep your character strong and focused.
* Choose to play as one of the four leading characters, Lucas Kane, Detective Carla Valenti, Carla's partner, Detective Tyler Miles and Marcus Kane, Lucas' brother
* Play through a total of 44 bone chilling acts.
* Manage the mental health of each of your characters by choosing the correct course of action and maintaining their psychological balance.
* Special multi-view split screen allows players to see what is happening in a different area of the game whilst playing through a particular scenario.
* A unique combination of interactivity and cinematography, enhancing the intense storyline and adventure
* Spectacular action sequences
* Easy to learn and easy to use interface Dark and moody atmosphere, creating an "edge of your seat" experience.
* More than 50 stuntmen and actors were used to motion capture in-game characters in order to create incredible realistic character models, dynamic cinematics and high-caliber Hollywood-style action sequences.

Watch the video HD here...

Platform: PC, Xbox, PlayStation 2
Genre: Adventure
Publisher: Atari
Rating: 15+

Video game reviews of 2008 - GTA IV, Star Wars, Mortal Kombat, Mirror's Edge, Call of Duty, Left 4 Dead, Fallout 3, Too Human, Haze & Prince of Persia

Top Reviews of 2008 from Kotaku...
Grand Theft Auto IV Review: Life, Liberty City And The Pursuit Of Happiness
The Force Unleashed Review: As If Millions of Star Wars Fans Suddenly Cried Out
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe Review: Finish Him
Mirror’s Edge Review: Leaps of Faith End in Splat
Call of Duty: World at War Review: The Modern Warfare Effect
Left 4 Dead Review: 2 Good 2 B 4gotten
Fallout 3 Review: Wasting Away Again In Radiationville
Too Human Review: Dyack's Human Too
Haze Review: It Sure Beats Pumping Gas
Prince Of Persia Review: Like Sands Through The Hourglass

January video game release dates PC PS3 DS Wii and Xbox 360...

Fishing Master World Tour - Wii - 6th January
Black & White 2 - Mac - 6th January
Le Seigneur des Anneaux L'âge des conquêtes - DS, PC, PS3, X360 - 9th January
Personal Trainer Maths - DS - 12th January
Moon - DS - 13th January
Lord of the Rings Conquest - PC, PS3, X360 - 16th January
Mirror's Edge - PC - 16th January
My Chinese Coach - DS - 16th January
Commander in Chief - PC - 20th January
Deer Drive - Wii - 20th January
Perimeter 2 New Earth - PC - 20th January
My Fitness Coach - Wii - 23rd January
Nobunage's Ambition Iron Triangle - PS2 - 27th January
SimAnimals - DS, Wii - 30th January
Saints Row 2 - PC - 30th January
Skate 2 - PS3, X360 - 31st January

Other January releases without a date...

Case Closed One Truth Prevails - Wii
Cookie Shop - DS
CSi New York - PC
I-Fluid - PC
Mr Biscuits Case of the Ocean Pearl - PC (online)
Our House - Wii
Red Faction Guerrilla - PC, PS3, X360
Scrabble 2009 - Wii

Apple iPhone biggest hit of 2008?

Image representing Apple as depicted in CrunchBase

Apple was a busy company in 2008. Over the past twelve months, the number of Apple-branded products on the street has become so broad and ubiquitous that it's hard to go a day without seeing evidence of it, even if you're not a Mac, iPhone or iPod owner.

And while it doesn't appear that Apple plans to slow down any in 2009 -- despite the seemingly endless supply of rumors about the health of CEO Steve Jobs - it's worth reflecting on some of the most notable innovations from Apple in a year that easily ranks as one of the most significant in its 31-year-history.

More here...